Andrew Appiah Ansah ’24


Electoral Commission of Ghana, Ghana

This summer I had the opportunity to intern at the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana. I have interned in the past for this organization. The EC of Ghana is responsible for all public electoral processes in Ghana. My previous work was as an intern for presidential and ministerial elections; this summer I had the opportunity to work as an intern during municipal and district elections. Working for this organization is a dream come true. I am able to give back to society, and see the inner workings of a very important organization in Ghana.

I started the internship remotely. I met my fellow interns, and my supervisor did a very good job of laying out in detail my projects for the entire summer. The first two weeks was a reasonably challenging period. Interns are taught how to carry out a new project and are later given a half-finished project to complete. After getting acquainted with the municipal process, I worked in person to finish my first project.

My main project for the rest of the summer was interning for the municipality of Bekwai during the municipal and district elections for the Bekwai municipality and Bosomtwe District. I worked at the Bekwai municipal office for the rest of the period and returned to the Bosomtwe office to finish up the internship during the last week of the period.

As an election intern, I was tasked with ensuring the smooth running of the voting process. During the election day, I verified the identity of voters and checked if they were registered. My fellow interns were registering unregistered voters and helping elderly and disabled voters. The election day was intense as I worked from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The election results were declared in less than 48 hours. The next part was data manipulation of the municipal registry. Interns were tasked with adding and removing relevant citizens to and from the voter registry. People who were no longer living in the municipality and had registered under another municipality or district also had to be removed from the registry. We also compiled a list of newly registered voters and sent it to the headquarters of the electoral commission. This was done to prevent double voting.

Overall, I had a great experience working for the EC of Ghana. I was able to see the impact I had by working closely with the government of Ghana. So far, I have been able to work in all major electoral processes that go in Ghana. I may look for other new opportunities for a variety; however, I can now confidently say that I’ve been through it all in the Electoral Commission. It has been a joy ride with a few bumps in the road. I would like to thank the Estate of George Mead and the ’68 Center for this opportunity.