[ 2016-04-28 ]

Thousands of polling stations open for limited voter registration
The Electoral Commission is set to open thousands
of polling stations across the country Thursday
morning for a limited voter registration
exercise.

This exercise is exclusively opened to people who
have turned 18 and those who have not registered
before.

The EC hopes to register about 1.2 million people
over the next 10 days at the selected polling
stations.

Meanwhile, some civil society and pressure groups
have criticised the EC for low publicity ahead of
the exercise, suggesting that better publicity
would encourage turnout.

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers
(CODEO) for instance has called on the EC to
intensify publicity on the exercise, particularly
on the modalities.

CODEO also says it has deployed 250 observers
nationwide to observe the conduct of the limited
voter registration exercise.

“CODEO concluded its training for all observers
on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, and has received
accreditation for the exercise for the Electoral
Commission. CODEO observers, deployed in all the
216 districts across the country, will observe
both the first and second phases of the exercise
which commences [today],” said a statement
signed by National Coordinator, Albert Arhin.

Convenor of pressure group Let My Vote Count
Alliance, David Asante Boateng, thinks all 26,000
polling stations across the country should have
been selected for the regristration. The EC
reduced the number of polling station to 3,500 for
the registration exercise over budgetary
contraints.

The Commission had budgeted for GHȼ 1.1
billion and an additional GHȼ 100 million for
administrative purposes, however, parliament last
year slashed the EC budget by more than GHȼ
400 million.

At a media event recently, the Electoral
Commissioner, Charlotte Osei, cautioned the public
against double registration, stating that the
system was capable of detecting double
registration.

She urged those who have lost their Voter
Identity (ID) cards to make formal complaints at
the nearest EC office for them to be issued with
new ones.

She also explained that those who were applying
for replacement of their voter ID cards would have
to pay a GHȼ 5.00 for the cost of the
materials.

The registration exercise ends on May 8, 2016.

Source - Myjoyonline.com

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