‘EC must give vulnerable persons preference in limited registration exercise’

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Agona West, Mrs Cynthia Morrison, has appealed to the Electoral Commission (EC) to give pregnant women, nursing mothers and Second-Year senior high school (SHS) students preference in the limited voters registration exercise.

She said that would help reduce the frustration and the ordeal those group of people go through in long queues before they were registered and that it would also allow them to fully part take in the ongoing exercise.

Mrs Morrison, who is also the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, made the appeal when she toured some registration centres at Agona Swedru, Otsenkorang and Adukrom to assess the exercise in her constituency.

The EC is undertaking the limited voters registration to provide opportunity for those who have attained 18 years and above to enable them to participate in the voting process in the country as the 1992 Constitution required.

Ample time needed
Mrs Morrison said some of the SHS students, who were participating in the registration exercise, were preparing to write their promotional examinations and, therefore, needed ample time to study to write their examinations, likewise pregnant women and nursing mothers didn’t have to queue in the scorching sun.

She called on the EC to consider creating additional registration centre at Agona Nyakrom to cater for people from Abodom, Agona Kwamang, Lower and Upper Bobikuma, Agona Kukurantumi and other villages in the district to avoid the risk of travelling long distances.   
Mr Sylvester Turkson, the senior supervisor of EC officials who briefed the minister and her entourage, said the creation of an additional centre at Nyakrom would help to reduce pressure on registration officers.

He said since the registration began on June 17, 2019, everything had been moving on smoothly without the participation of minors and assured the minister that no political agent would be allowed to breach the rules and regulations of the exercise.

He urged the people to continue to comport themselves for the successful completion of the registration. - GNA