The Electoral Commission has declared that the number of accreditations for journalists to cover result collation at constituency and regional collation centres has been increased to 4,500.
At a news conference on Friday, November 29, 2024, the Chairperson of the EC said that the Commission would send 4,500 accreditation cards to the leadership of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the Ghana Independent Broadcaster Association (GIBA) by Sunday evening.
The EC noted that the GJA and GIBA will allocate and distribute the 4,500 accreditation cards. The European Commission will not be involved in this process.
The Commission emphasized that it is the Commission that requires the media the most at this critical point of the election process and that it is dedicated to collaborating with the media before, during, and after the December General Election.
The Commission clarified that its previous note to its regional directors was designed to assure a minimum of coverage at all constituency and regional collation centres, rather than to limit media access to the collation process.
The original letter, which suggested three TV stations and five radio stations per constituency collation centre, as well as five TV stations and seven radio stations for each regional collation centre, was merely intended to ensure that the collation process received the bare minimum of coverage.
The Commission, however, has agreed with the GJA and GIBA that, notwithstanding capacity constraints at several constituency and regional collation centres, the number of accreditations will be increased from the originally planned minimum of 3,308 to 4,500.
This corresponds to 1,192 additional accreditations for constituency and regional collation centres. Again, the 4,500 accreditation cards will be given to GJA and GIBA by Sunday evening.