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General News of Friday, 6 May 2016

Source: classfmonline.com

Voters’ registration: EC yet to decide on extension

Charlotte Osei Charlotte Osei

With just about two days to the end of the limited voters’ registration exercise, the Electoral Commission (EC) says it has not yet decided on the possibility of an extension.

The Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the University Students Association (USAG) have both asked the EC to extend the date for the exercise due to some challenges with the registration process.

USAG is even threatening to sue if the EC does not extend the exercise since the challenges could disenfranchise potential voters. But a Deputy Chairperson of the EC, Georgina Opoku Amankwa, says her outfit is yet to take a firm decision in the face of the numerous challenges and complaints.

“There has not been any decision but after the exercise we will look at it holistically and see whether it merits some extension but as I sit here, we have not taken such a decision.

She was, however, quick to add that the EC is taking measures to create more registration centres to ease the pressure at various schools. “There are issues where the population is larger than the team of just one registration centre there.

We are dealing with all those issues. Legon, for instance, we heard about it and there is another team there, tomorrow we will send another team to ease the pressure there.

“ USAG demands more registration centres USAG President Henry Nkosuo Boakye in an interview with Citi News said the EC must provide more registration centres on the various campuses.

He noted that “an institution like Legon should have at least three registration centres, University of Education Kumasi Campus should have two centres while a big institution like KNUST which has over 25,000 Ghanaian students should have at least three centres.” The New Patriotic Party, led by its presidential running mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has made similar calls on the EC.