Don't rush to go and register in a different electoral area - EC Director

Mr Emmanuel Abeam Danso, Ho Municipal Director of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has cautioned that, residents who leave their local electoral areas to go and register in other electoral areas are ceding their eligibility to vote for their Assembly Members in District Assembly elections.

Mr Danso was reacting to concerns raised on Saturday by Mr Robert Saluma, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Agent at the STC Terminus Bankoe registration centre that people were moving from other electoral areas to register even before the registration team got to their electoral areas.

“These people would have to vote for Assembly Members in other areas and not theirs, because their names would not be in the rolls of their own electoral areas,” he stated.

He said the movement plan of the registration teams catered for every nook and corner of the country and it was therefore unnecessary to hastily rush to register out of town in another electoral area.

Mr Danso said generally the first few hours of the exercise in the Ho Municipal Area had been encouraging and that challenges with the kit were expected.

He said with time, registration officers would master the use of the kits and reports of hitches in their operations would reduce considerably.

Visits to seven of the 17 electoral areas indicated that it took between 25 to 35 minutes for one person to go through the process.

The general challenges were difficulties with the operation of the kits.

Mr Moses Gemeh, Team Leader at the Ghana Education Office, Bakagblefe Electoral Area said the process was being delayed by the inability of some people to quickly provide their personal details.

Mr Ben Kraka, a Private Businessman who was waiting to register at the Ministry of Agriculture Centre in Ho, urged the EC to work seriously at reducing the waiting time.

Mr Seth Ohene-Frimpong, Chairman of the Ho-Central Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said he had gone round some centres and that “so far so good”.

The GNA gathered from its rounds that only the NDC and the NPP had agents at the centres, with the observers of the two major parties going about their roles in total cordiality.**