Electoral Rules for Students

Elections on campuses are mostly held without written rules governing their conduct. This has partly been the cause of electoral conflicts on some campuses.
I have therefore presented the text below for the perusal of interested parties.
These rules which regulated the elctions of April 2006 at the University of Cape Coast produced a conflict free election and doubled the voter turnout.
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Saeed
+233208121764
raafani@gmail.com


ELECTORAL RULES OF UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST 2006

The following shall be the rules governing the conduct of elections for the students of the University of Cape Coast.

1. Candidates shall be those certified by the committee that verifies the eligibility of nominees in accordance to the constitution otherwise known as the Vetting Committee, which shall be a body to operate under the Electoral Commission.
2. Nominees shall be those who have filed their nominations to contest the elections.
3. Elections shall be conducted by open secret ballot
4. Valid ballot papers shall be only those issued by the Commission
5. All ballot papers bearing marks that undermine the voting procedure shall be regarded as invalid and returned to the Electoral Officer at the Polling Station.
6. All complaints about electoral malpractice(s) shall first and foremost be reported to the Returning Officer in charge of the Polling station.
7. If the matter is not satisfactorily resolved, it shall be reported to any of the Electoral Commissioners or directly to the Chairman.
8. Proxy votes shall not be allowed
9. Only valid votes cast shall count.
10. A candidate will have to obtain a simple majority only of valid votes cast to be declared winner.
11. If two or more candidates tie with the highest votes, there shall be a run-off to determine a definite winner for that position only.
12. There shall be an electoral register of all students eligible to vote.
13. For the avoidance of multiple voting, indelible ink shall be applied to the finger of a voter when s/he appears to vote. There shall also be a tick against the voter's name in the voters' register.
14. The ballot papers shall be given security marks which shall be made known to candidates and their polling agents before voting takes off
15. There shall be seven polling stations viz. Adehye Hall, Atlantic Hall, Caseley Hayford Hall, Kwame Nkrumah Hall, Oguaa Hall, Sasakawa/Graduate Hostel and Valco Hall.
16. All eligible voters (students) shall be required to vote at their respective halls of affiliation. Students affiliated to Sasakawa and Graduate Hostels shall vote at the same polling station.
17. Graduate students shall vote in the Local NUGS elections only.
18. Candidates are not to put up posters at unauthorized places.
19. Candidates shall be required to have polling agents not exceeding one at any point in time at all polling stations.
20. Voting starts at seven o'clock in the forenoon and ends at seventeen o'clock in the afternoon (times quoted in GMT)
21. Counting of votes shall commence immediately after the curtain is drawn on voting.
22. Polling agents shall be required to observe the counting process and endorse electoral results at the polling station.
23. Accredited election observers shall be tolerated to observe the electoral process in so far as they do not pose any interference.
24. Campaigning can only begin when the Commission lifts the ban and ends at midnight of the day preceding the election day.
25. The Commission reserves the right to disqualify any candidate if all or part of these rules is not observed.
26. Election results shall be declared and or published within forty-eight hours by the chairman of the Electoral Commission.
27. Any ballot paper that lacks clarity as to who is being voted for shall be invalid. This includes but not limited to ballot papers that have no voting mark, that has the name of the voter on the ballot paper, any other unexpected mark(s) on the paper or has multiple vote mark(s) on the paper.
28. Candidates who temper with the campaign process of other candidates shall be penalised.

Signed
Saeed Musah-Khaleepha
For Electoral Commission