They said the resourcing would ensure that citizens understood the issues driving the elections and what they needed to do to promote the sanctity of the electoral process.

The meeting was organised in Tamale by NORSAAC, a civil society organisation (CSO), and representatives from public institutions including; NCCE, Ghana Police Service, Northern Regional House of Chiefs, Local Government Service, Information Services Department and  CSOs, and the media were the participants.

NORSAAC organised the meeting to share its observation report on the December, 2018 referendum for the participants to assess the conduct of the referendum, make recommendations to help improve the conduct of subsequent elections, especially the referendum scheduled for September, this year.

NORSAAC's observation report showed that some aspects of the conduct of the referendum including; the starting time of the polls were adhered to and adequate number of security personnel was deployed to polling stations.

The report, however, indicated that some of the security personnel were not neutral and professional as some of them, who were natives, got involved in the election process, some of who turned themselves to polling agents, and campaign managers for 'Yes' votes, which was not good for the credibility of the polls. 

The participants, who gave the suggestions in a group presentation, also recommended that security personnel should not be posted to their native communities to provide security for elections there because it became evident during the referendum that some of them compromised their positions.     

They also suggested that voting areas be made disability-friendly to make them easily accessible to persons with disabilities to cast their ballots in secrecy.

Mr Aminu Issah Danaa, Monitoring and Evaluation Manager of NORSAAC expressed hope that steps would be taken to ensure that flaws that characterised the December, 2018 referendum would not be repeated in subsequent elections.