The Electoral Commission (EC) has explained its reasoning for conducting the voter registration process only at its district offices, reiterating that maintaining the accuracy of the voter register is its top priority.
The Director of Electoral Services at the Commission, Dr. Serebuor Quaicoe, emphasized the significance of the voter register in determining Ghana’s leadership and the necessity of preventing disputes from its contents.
He acknowledged that the media and civil society organizations have placed a lot of emphasis on increasing voter registration, but he emphasized that the Commission’s responsibilities go beyond merely registering people to vote.
Dr. Quaicoe stated, “The thinking of the Commission is that it is to register people and also to protect the sanctity of the register. That is very, very important that nobody is talking about. You’re going to compile the voters’ register that would be used to determine who leads Ghana on all fronts. What goes into the register should be something that should not bring about issues.”
Meanwhile, detractors claim that further decentralizing the registration process to electoral areas is necessary due to the accessibility of these offices and transportation costs, among other factors.
The Commission plans to conduct another registration exercise in the electoral areas next year. Dr. Quaicoe clarified that the ongoing district-level registrations are specifically intended for the upcoming district-level elections; as a result, the current registration process is restricted to district offices.
In related news, Mahama has urged the National Identification Authority (NIA) to speed up its work to get more Ghanaians register on the Ghana card.
Mahama made this comments after visiting some registration centers across Greater Accra during the current ongoing limited voter registration exercise.
Earlier on we reported that the former president will tour Accra to monitor the country’s current limited voter registration.
According to him, after visiting some centers in Accra, he noticed that a lot of young people were waiting in queues to get registered.
