Over 3.4 million citizens captured in voters registration

The Electoral Commission (EC) has captured over 3.4 million registrants onto the new voters roll in the first nine days of the ongoing mass registration exercise, the deputy chairman of the Commission in charge of operations, Mr Samuel Tettey, has said.

Speaking at the second edition of the ‘Let the citizen know’ series at the EC headquarters in Accra last Friday, Mr Tettey said the numbers recorded, which exceeded the Commission's target, was as a result of the high performance of the BVR kits and the registration officials at the registration centres.

“The performance of the registration officials keeps on improving daily, especially the speed and accuracy of the Data Entry Clerks. Most registration teams are able to register an average of 150 applicants per day per centre with some recording as high as 359 in a day with the support of mobile teams,” he said.

He said the performance of the registration officials was such that it took an average of five minutes to process an applicant.

Mr Tettey indicated that the registration centres that were registering the highest numbers include R/C Church, Asouyeboah -215 (Kwadaso District), D/A JSS Apagya -224 (Afigya Kwabre South District), D/JHS Bourno -241 (Afigya Kwabre South District) and Methodist Church, Benso – 247 (Gomoa Central District).

The rest are Don Bosco Cath. Girls Prim. Sch - 261(Gomoa Central District), Kumbumgu-Aboabo – 260 (Tamale Metro), Bukpomo – 247 (Kumbungu District) and Anglican Primary School Akramaman – 281 (Ga West).

Ghana Card leads

Providing details of the registration exercise so far, Mr Tettey said a total of 3,442,954 million registrants had been captured onto the voters roll as of July 8 this year.

Of the number, he said 781,019, representing 66.3 per cent, registered with a Ghana Card, 18,019, representing 1.5 per cent, registered with a passport and 379,709, representing 32.2 per cent, registered through guarantors.

Vote transfer

Mr Tettey said the Commission had scheduled voter transfers to begin in October this year but would have to await the maturity period for a Constitutional Instrument (CI) in the subject that is presently before Parliament.

He said students in senior high schools (SHSs), who would be captured at the registration centres in their various schools, could transfer their votes to where they desired to vote during the December 7 election.

“The GES requested the exercise to be conducted in the various schools because students are not allowed to move out of their campuses and we informed all the political parties about it so, yes, the students can transfer their votes when the time is right to do so,” he said.

Law and order

The ‘Let the citizens know’ was launched by the EC last Wednesday to provide updates on the ongoing voters reregistration exercise and also enhance transparency in the build-up to the December 7 election.

The Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Jean Mensa, assured the public that the Commission was determined to ensure law and order at the registration centres and ensure that the process did not favour any political parties.

She said maintaining law and order was part of the EC’s mandate and that the staff of the Commission were well trained and would not collude with a political party to engage in wrongdoing.

Reacting to concerns that some political parties were transporting people to register at centres they didn’t belong to, Mrs Mensa said the ‘challenge’ system, which was put in place to address concerns of stakeholders during the exercise, was still in place and the public could make use of it to draw the attention of the Commission to wrongdoings.

“That is why the challenge system is there so all these people who are ‘bussed’ to the centres can be challenged,” she said.