The Electoral Commission has announced an increase in the number of accreditations for the media to cover the collation of results at the constituency and regional collation centres to 4,500.This marks a thousand one hundred and ninety-two (1192) increase following the initial 3,308.

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Speaking at a press conference on Friday, November 29, 2024, the Chairperson of the EC announced that the Commission will issue the 4,500 accreditation cards to the leadership of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the Ghana Independent Broadcaster Association (GIBA) by Sunday evening, December 1, 2024.The EC added that the allocation and distribution of the 4,500 accreditation cards shall be done by the GJA and GIBA.

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The EC will not play any role in the allocation and distribution of the cards.The Commission also noted that it needs the media more at this, rather at this crucial stage of the electoral process, highlighting that they are committed to working with the media ahead of the elections, during, and after the 2024 polls.

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This remarks follow an earlier memo that suggested limited coverage by the media at the various collation centres, a move that was met with harsh criticism, with many labelling it as one of the ploys by the EC to rig the election.

light of this, the Commission explained that its earlier communique was to ensure that there would be minimum coverage at all constituency and regional collation centres,

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rather than seeking to restrict media access to the collation process.The earlier memo that suggested three TV stations and five radio stations per constituency collation centre and five TV stations and seven radio stations for each regional collation centre was therefore only to ensure minimum coverage of the collation process.

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The Commission has however agreed with the GJA and GIBA that, in spite of the space limitation at many constituency and regional collation centres.This amounts to 1,192 more accreditations to the constituency and regional collation centres.Once again, the 4,500 accreditation cards will be delivered to GJA and GIBA by Sunday evening.

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