EC registers over 15 million voters with 5 more days to go
The Electoral Commission (EC) has exceeded its projected target of registering 15 million eligible Ghanaians for the December 7, 2020 general elections.
As of Saturday, August 1, 2020, five clear days to the end of the ongoing mass registration exercise, 15,117,438 people had been registered reports Graphic Online’s Timothy Ngnenbe.
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The Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Jean Mensa disclosed this at the seventh edition of the Let the Citizen Know series in Accra on Monday, August 3, 2020.
She said although the Commission had exceeded its target, it would stop at nothing to ensure that all eligible Ghanaians were captured on the electoral roll to exercise their franchise.
No foreigners
The EC boss, however, stressed that the commission would not countenance any attempt by foreigners to register and participate in Ghanaian elections.
On that score, she urged all stakeholders, especially political parties and their activists, to desist from the tendency of aiding foreigners to register their names in the country's poll book.
"Our attention has been drawn to attempts by foreigners to register and we call on stakeholders, citizens and the police to be vigilant about it. If you go to a registration centre and see people who are not citizens trying to register, draw attention to it so that the necessary action can be taken," she said.
Mrs Jean Mensa stressed the commission was determined to ensure that the electoral role was clean and credible going into the December 7 elections.
"I believe that if you go to Togo, Niger, Cote d'Ivoire or Burkina Faso, you will not have the opportunity to register and be on their roll.
“Those who must determine people who lead this country must be Ghanaians and as a commission, it is our duty to ensure that the register has Ghanaians who qualify only," she stressed.
Assurance
The EC chairperson assured the public that although it was possible that some foreigners may have found their way to be captured in the ongoing mass voter registration exercise, the commission would use all available mechanisms to expunge their names.
"As part of the processes of cleaning up, we will engage and use all mechanisms available to clean up the register to ensure that anyone who is not qualified does not have their name in the register," Mrs Mensa stressed.
Registration updates
Giving updates on the number of persons who have registered so far, the Deputy EC chairman in charge of Corporate Service, Dr Bossman Eric Asare, said 14,367,906 persons were registered at the end of the fifth phase of the exercise.
He added that more than 700,000 people were registered on the first day of the final phase of the registration which started on Saturday, August 1, this year, taking the total number of registrants over the 15 million mark.
Regional breakdown
The Greater Accra Region continued to maintain its lead with 3,225,508 registrants, while the Ashanti and Eastern regions followed with 2,700,805 and 1,444,274 respectively.
The Central Region occupied the fourth position with 1,404,018 registered people and Western, Northern and Volta regions settling on 974,293; 922,395 and 852,277 registrants respectively.
The Bono, Upper East and Bono East regions followed in that order with 590,185; 569,563; 520,208 registrants while the Western North and Upper West regions had 406,062 and 404,711 respectively.
Four newly created regions – Oti, Ahafo, North East and Savannah regions completed the list with 316,458; 282,308; 253,339 and 251,034 registrants respectively.
The statistics show that the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Eastern and Central regions together make up 58 per cent of the total number of registrants.
Dr Asare said it was expected that with the remaining days for the registration exercise, the numbers would increase in the regions, where registration was taking place in urban centres.
Security
Responding to a question on video evidence that some security agencies were preventing some persons from registering on grounds that they were not Ghanaians, the EC said it was not responsible for security management.
“EC’s role is mainly about election management so when it comes to matters of security management, I think it is above us. When the month ends and we are going for our pay slips, it is about election management, it has nothing to do with security.
“We do not know the kind of intelligence the military and the police get and why they do the things they do,” he said.
Guarantor system
Touching on the guarantor system, Dr Asare urged political party activists and members of the public to desist from serving as guarantors for people they did not know or be prepared to face the law when caught.
“The details of guarantors are captured in our database so it is important that you know the persons you are guaranteeing for. In the event those you guarantee for are not qualified, guarantors will also be held accountable for perjury,” he said.
Dr Asare described as worrying the situation where some persons used crude methods to prevent other people from registering on grounds that they were foreigners.
He called on all persons who had genuine concerns about the eligibility of any potential registrant to use the appropriate challenge procedure spelt out by the EC.
“The challenge system embedded in the registration exercise is a civil process where anyone who qualifies to register as a voter can challenge others who avail themselves to register.
“The Commission maintains that if you suspect someone is not qualified to register, do not physically or verbally prevent the person from registering. Rather, just get the challenge form at the registration centre and challenge the person,” he said.
Dr Asare also said the District Registration Review Committees (DRRCs) had begun their sittings on the challenged cases across the country, adding that it was one of the avenues to take unqualified persons off the system before the final register was compiled.
Exhibition
He noted that the exhibition of the voters register would provide another opportunity for the names of applicants who did not qualify to be objected to in the register.
“This means that anyone who got on the register but did not qualify to be there can have his/her registration objected to during the exhibition exercise,” Dr Asare said.