Exhibition of voters register ends
The three-week nationwide exhibition of the voters register has ended, with most centres recording low turn out.
Advertisement
The exercise, which started on July 18 and ended on August 7, this year, was to give the electorate the opportunity to verify their personal details ahead of the December 7 general election.
In addition, It also offered voters an opportunity to know where their polling station was located.
When the Daily Graphic visited exhibition centres at Adabraka, New Town, Dakuman, Tesano and North Kaneshie yesterday, it was observed that many of the electoral officials were idle.
According to the electoral officials, very few people turned up in the morning to check their details.
The Electoral Official at Afropa House polling centre, Mr Lawrence Gyimah said only eight people had turned up to verify their details as at 3:30 p.m.
Mr Gyimah said out of the 510 names in his register, only 248 had come to verify their details during the 21-day exhibition, a situation which was not different from other centres visited.
At the Roman Catholic Primary school polling centre A & B, 35 people had gone to check their details on the last day.
Out of the 1,203 names in the two registers, 567 people had gone to verify their details.
Background
The exhibition exercise was originally scheduled for May this year but had to be postponed due to a case that was instituted against the Electoral Commission (EC) by Mr Abu Ramadan, a former National Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC), and Mr Evans Nimako an activist of the New Patriotic Party.
Kumasi
The Ashanti Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Mr Quaicoo Serebour, told the Daily Graphic reporter, Felix Baidoo, that there was no incident recorded during the voter exhibition exercise in the region. He said as at the end of the first 12-day exercise more than 1.5 million people had turned up to verify their details out of an expected 2,884,228. He said the figure represents more than 50 per cent of the total number of people registered.
He said it was likely the region would record a very high turnout when the final reports come in.
The Regional Director said the region recorded a turnout of 3,845 out of the expected 7,103 as at the end of the first session when re-registration of those who had earlier registered with National Health Insurance cards took place. He said this represented 54 per cent of the total number who had their names in the register.
He commended the various stakeholders for their role in ensuring a smooth and incident-free exercise.
From Tamale, Samuel Duodu reports that the nation-wide voter register exhibition exercise recorded low patronage in the Tamale metropolis.
There were only the exhibition officers at some of the exhibition centres that the Daily Graphic visited in the metropolis. There was no sign of people coming to check and verify their names in the voters register.
As at 4.30pm when this reporter visited the Assemblies of God Church “A’ and “B” exhibition centres in the Tamale Central constituency, 528 people out of a combined total of 1,151 registered voters for the two centres had come to check and verify their names in the register.
The Assemblies of God Church “A” exhibition centre has a total of 600 registered voters but 256 came to check their names while at the Assemblies of God Church “B”, 272 people our of 551 registered voters had come to check their names.
According to the exhibition officers for the Assemblies of God Church exhibition “A” and ‘B’ centres, Messrs Abdallah Alhassan Bidogu and Musah Abdul Ganiwu, the names of a deceased person, a minor and one who had engaged in multiple registration were recorded.
At the Victory Cinema “B” centre, the exhibition officer, Iddrisu Mohammed said the centre recorded the names of 10 deceased persons and18 people who had engaged in multiple registration out of a total of 524 registered voters.
From Bolgatanga, Alhandu Abdul-Hamid reports that the last day of the exhibition of the voters register in the Upper East Region, recorded low patronage.
Electoral officers at most exhibition centres the Daily Graphic visited were found dosing because there was nobody at the centres to verify their details.
In the Bolgatanga Central Constituency in the Upper East Region, as at 3.44 pm only 8 people had verified their names at the Plaza A and B exhibition centres and 5 people had done so at 4.55pm at the Bolgatanga Nursery B exhibition centre.
He said two people were failed in the verification process and were given indication forms to be sent to the regional office of the EC for further to be processed for re-registration.
Ms. Asore Hilda, the exhibition Officer for Plaza B centre said only 132 people had had their names verified out of a registered voter population of 483, while at the Bolgatanga Nursery B centre 39 people had been verified out of a registered voter population of 123.