Twenty thousand security personnel are to be deployed nationwide to provide security and maintain law and order during and after the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.

The personnel from the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Armed Forces, the Prisons Service, the Immigration Service, the Ghana National Fire Service, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI), are also to protect the country's territory against external infiltration.

The Inspector General of police, Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye, who made this known yesterday, said more than 10,000 security personnel had already been trained on election security maintainance under a programme supported by the British government.

The IGP made this known at the Tesano Police Depot, Accra, when President John Dramani Mahama handed over 194 vehicles, including ambulances, to support the police to provide security during the elections and beyond.

The President had earlier presented 265 vehicles, comprising 200 military pick-ups, 30 civil pick-ups, 20 ambulances and 15 buses equipped with communication gadgets to the military at the Burma Camp.

The Minister for the Interior, Mr. Kwesi Aboah gave an assurance that the security services were prepared to ensure incident-free elections.