Municipal Electoral Commission in dire need of canopies for limited voter registration exercise

Correspondence from Upper East Region

The office of the Municipal Electoral Commission in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region is in dire need of canopies in the wake of the ongoing nationwide registration exercise.

The exercise on a daily basis draws multitudes of people from far and near across the region, who come and cue in the sun to register.

No provisions have been made for any form of shelter this time round.

The Municipal Electoral Officer Mr. Yaw Peprah, spoke to GhanaWeb's Sarah Dubure in an exclusive interview.

He satisfactorily pointed out that the numbers keep increasing as the days go by, but quickly added that they need canopies to house them.

"Many people have been coming. They keep increasing as the days go by, but there are no canopies erected here." He cried.

He noted that people travel from far away to register, just to come and be at the mercy of the weather in cues for a long.

He added that some come with babies strapped to their backs. A situation he described as unfair.

"So if they come here and stand for long and it is not getting to their turn, they will go. People are carrying babies. Carrying them throughout is just unfair". She said.

The Municipal Electoral Officer pointed out that it threatened to rain at a point and he had to open his storeroom for the people for safety.

"You know this afternoon, when it threatened to rain, l had to go and open my store room for people to go and hide there.

He called on politicians to come to their aid, since the registrants are the same people they will be soliciting votes from.

"Now that the Commission couldn't produce canopies and chairs, we expected that the politicians would come to our aid because they are the same people they will solicit votes from." He said.

He recalled that in the previous exercise, they had enough tents and chairs where the people sat and we were given numbers and called in turns.

He however stated that they are handicapped which is why they haven't been able to rent any.

" Unfortunately for us, we are handicapped. We don't have money to rent." He said.

Mr. Peprah explained that the canopies they rented for the previous exercise were still in arrears, the reason why they did not go for some this time round.

"The previous exercise that we did, canopies are still in areas. Canopies and chairs." He spilled.

"So this time, the Commission just refused to go for canopies and chairs. Looking at 21 days, it will cost us a lot." The good thing is that this time, we didn't do registration in all the polling stations.

Mr. Peprah noted that he earlier pleaded with the political parties to support them with plastic chairs and canopies, but they only got 100 plastic chairs.

He appealed for more support. He indicated that three canopies would take them through

"At least three rooms of canopies will house the supporters". He pointed.