The Electoral Commission on Sunday ended its limited voter registration exercise which commenced on June 17, 2019.
The exercise was to register eligible Ghanaians from the age of 18 and above to enable them to partake in the upcoming referendum for the election of MMDCEs and the district level elections.
However, the exercise did not go smoothly across all the centres as some network failures forced EC officials to switch from the online registration platform to register applicants offline, a situation which left many people unable to register.
As a result, some of the prospective voters and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have called for an extension of the exercise.
Speaking to Citi News, the Public Relations Officer of the Electoral Commission, Slyvia Annor says measures have been put in place to ensure the situation is addressed.
“An operational instruction has been given from the HQ of the Electoral Commission by the commission to the effect that all those who will be in the queue should be captured so it doesn’t necessarily means it is ended. All those who were in the queue before 6 pm will still be captured so there is an inbuilt extension.”
Some centres have issued numbers to persons who were in the queue before the process ended will be registered in the ensuing days according to the new directive from the EC.
In the Northern Region, those who were unable to register have been given Monday, July 8 to return to the various centers to register but some applicants say, that is not enough and have asked for more days to cover all prospective cardholders amidst allegation of favouritism by the EC.
Meanwhile, the National Democratic Congress has called for reforms to enable Ghanaians who attain eighteen to walk into the offices of the Electoral Commission to register for a voter identification card.
The Minority leader in parliament, Haruna Iddrisu told journalists in Tamale that, most first time applicants are likely to be disenfranchised as the limited voter registration exercise is ending with many long queues remaining.
Source: citinewsroom.com
