The Deputy Director of Election of National Democratic Congress (NDC) in charge of IT Dr. Rashid Tanko-Computer, has expressed worried the challenge of breakdown with the communication network in respect to the mop-up voter registration exercise scheduled to take place from Thursday, August 1 to Saturday, August 2024.
He said this network challenge was raised at the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) calling on the Electoral Commission (EC) to fall on another network for a backup than relying on only on MTN.
He is of the view that, this network challenge has hampered data capturing of the prospective voters who turn up at the registration centers to register with frustration and resentment.
Dr. Tanko called on the party supporters and hardworking team of the national executives to encourage disappointed registrants to be patient and make themselves available to register. This he believes is the only way to be in in the register to exercise their votes in December to vote the New Patriotic Party (NPP)from power.
Going forward, the Electoral Commission (EC) is optimistic of capturing between 50,000 to 70,000 new voters onto the electoral roll in its upcoming mop-up voter registration exercise scheduled to take place from Thursday, August 1 to Saturday, August 2024.
The three-day exercise is meant to give opportunity to persons who turned 18 years after the recent limited voter registration and those who could not register previously to have their names captured in the poll book.
Addressing a news conference in Accra, Mr Samuel Tettey, a Deputy Chairman of the EC, in-Charge of Operations, said the Commission had designated its 268 District Offices, 26 Public Universities and 41 Prison Centres across the country for the exercise.
The registration, he said, would commence at 0700 hours and close at 1800 hours, each day.
Additionally, he said, the exercise would be done only online, adding that the Commission had engaged Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) extensively to ensure stable internet connectivity during the exercise.
The EC, between May 7 to 29, 2024, carried out a Limited Voter Registration Exercise to capture all eligible voters onto the electoral roll, ahead of the December 7 elections.
Mr Tettey said, at the end of the 23-day exercise, the Commission captured a total of 778,447 voters onto the electoral roll.
The figure, he said, comprised 408,332 Females, representing 52.45 per cent and 370,115 Males, representing 47.55 per cent.
Currently, he said, there were 18, 681,366 provisional registered voters.
Mr Tettey said the mop-up voter registration exercise formed part of measures to ensure an “all-inclusive Voters Register ahead of the 2024 General Election”.
Touching on modalities for the exercise, Mr Tettey said, an eligible applicant must present a Ghana Card or the Ghana Passport as proof of eligibility at the designated Registration Centre, adding that in the absence of any of the aforementioned documents, an applicant would require two persons who were already registered voters as guarantors.
He said that was in accordance with Regulation 2 of CI 91 As Amended by CI 126.
“Registered Voters can only guarantee for 10 persons. This means anyone who guaranteed for 10 persons in the last registration exercise does not qualify to guarantee for the other applicants in the Mop-Up exercise,” Mr Tettey cautioned.
Additionally, he said, guarantors must ensure that those they wish to guarantee for are “Ghanaians who are at least 18 years old and meet the other requirements for registration, including being residents or ordinary residents of the electoral area where they wish to register as voters.”
Mr Tettey also explained that political parties were permitted to send their agents to the Registration Centres to observe the exercise, however, he urged the parties to educate their agents to conduct themselves professionally to ensure an incident-free exercise.
“The Commission has informed the Ghana Police Service about the Mop-Up exercise,” he said, adding that “there would be security presence at the various Registration Centres to ensure a peaceful environment.”
Again, he urged applicants and registration officials to conduct themselves well at the Centres to ensure a smooth exercise.
“In the same manner, we wish to urge parents and guardians not to allow their children who are not yet 18 years old to take part in the Mop-Up Voter Registration Exercise.”
Mr Tettey also indicated that the Commission had set August 20 to 27, 2024, for the exhibition of the Voters Register, adding that the exercise would take place at all polling stations across the country.
“All registered voters are encouraged to go to their polling stations to check that their names are in the voters register or use the shortcode to electronically check their names in the voters register,” he encouraged.
Since the advent of multi-party elections in 1992, Ghana has successfully held six free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections, including the peaceful alternation of power on three occasions.
Despite this impressive record, transparent and peaceful elections are never a guaranteed outcome in Ghana.
Story by: Alexander Kukah
