Security architect and columnist Lieutenant Colonel Martin Dziedzorm Dey has cautioned that the Ghana Police Service's long-standing tactic of deploying in large numbers to deter election-related violence has repeatedly failed to control crowd behaviour.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Lt Col Dey said police crowd-control deployments often allow voters and onlookers to come into direct contact with sensitive areas such as polling stations, ballot boxes, and Electoral Commission officials, a practice he described as "out of the norm" and one that leaves security personnel vulnerable to attack.
He stressed the need for effective physical crowd management and dispersal measures, starting with the segmentation of polling stations using barriers to channel voters in an orderly manner.
This, he explained, would allow for process engineering to regulate entry and exit points.
