Election 2024: Allow SDA members to join Special Voters – Bryan Acheampong

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong, has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to allow members of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church to join the Special voters.

He argues that their faith should be respected by allowing them to vote during the Special Voting period, which is designed for security agencies and other special institutions.

The upcoming general elections are scheduled for December 7th, 2024. This date, however, coincides with the Sabbath of the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Church, which has raised concerns within the Adventist community about their participation in the electoral process.

In a post on X on Friday, July 19, the MP stated that the SDA has a membership of over 800,000, and they will be disenfranchised because their faith does not allow them to work on Saturdays.

“Let us respect their faith and allow them to vote with the security agencies. #SDA Kindly join me in calling on the EC to allow the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) to vote with the security agencies. The SDA has an 800,000+ strong Ghanaian membership that is disenfranchised because, by their faith, they do not work on Saturdays and, therefore, do not vote.”

However, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, the Director of Elections and IT for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), in a Facebook post said they proposed the idea but the EC ignored their suggestions.

“It must be stated that we all wanted to expand the classification of people who could vote during the Special Voting period. This included political party officials who will be on duty on December 07 and people whose religious considerations may so dictate, such as Seventh Day Adventists, Savior Church among others.

“However, at IPAC, the Chairperson of the EC (Jean Mensah) and her top-level staff quoting the ELECTORAL LAWS were clear that the NDC’s proposal will be against the law.
We all decided to abide by the decision and work towards fixing the challenge from 2025,” Dr Omane said.

Source: citinewsroom