he Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), in collaboration with the Ghana Integrity Initiative and ACEP, is implementing a project dubbed: 'Safeguarding Ghana's Stability in the Face of Serious and Organized Crime Threats during the 2024 Elections'. The project is to create awareness about the challenges posed by electoral corruption and serious crimes. Ms Beauty Emefa Nartey, the Executive Secretary of GACC, who made this known to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Takoradi, indicated that vote buying marred the cherished democratic credentials of the state. 'Notwithstanding the modest progress in electoral politics, issues of abuse of office, misuse of state resources, election related corruption, vote buying… had the propensity to mar the future of not only the development of the human and social-economic capital but the cherished democratic credentials of the state,' Ms Nartey said. 'Transactional elections - vote buying by political parties is becoming a security issue and a means for economic organized crime to thrive.' 'It is believed that high-profile social influencers invest their ill-earned monies in the process to protect their crimes aside engendering the political space and sustainable development'. Ms Nartey said the cost of elections in Ghana was becoming very expensive requiring a candidate to invest thousands of cedis even at the primaries levels and thus promoting monetization. The goal of GACC was to, among other things, create awareness on 'Safeguarding Ghana's Stability in the Face of Serious and Organized Crime Threats during the 2024 elections,' she said. ?The project would educate the public on the need to reject monetization of the electoral processes, which continued to negatively affect the progress of society. 'Voting for the candidate with the highest bid to win, often times deprived the constituents the space for fair competition, competence as against affluence, self-promotion as against patriotism.' ?She said the likelihood of the political class to overspend in the 2024 ele ctions must be a matter of concern to all Ghanaians, adding that it was very important that Ghanaians rose against the practice and support the advocacy to stem it. 'We are the very people who pay in disguise with the lack of proper roads, hospitals, schools and better working conditions in the long round,' the GACC Boss said. She, therefore, requested that political parties made the public aware of their sources of funding for their political activities to ensure that the modest gains made in the country's democratic process were safeguarded. Source: Ghana News Agency The Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) announced in a press conference on Tuesday evening the composition of the 279 local councils that will be installed next Friday, March 1. An agreement has been reached in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior to inaugurate the local councils next Friday, ISIE President Farouk Bouasker said after the announcement of the composition of the local councils. He explained that the inaugural session of each local council will be chaired by the elected member who received the highest number of votes. Bouasker also noted that the ISIE will summon all members of the elected local councils on Saturday, March 2 to conduct the first draw of lots for the regional councils. These draws will take place under the supervision of the ISIE and in locations to be determined later, he said. Late on Saturday, the ISIE will announce the composition of the 24 regional councils (according to the number of governorates in the republic). Elections for the district councils (5 districts) and the Council of Regions and Districts (second chamber of parliament) will then take place in what Bouasker described as a "quick process" that "will not exceed one month". Bouasker added that the various councils would begin their work in April next year, in accordance with the law and the constitution.