General News of Monday, 6 October 2008

Source: GNA

23 dead people deleted from voters registers

Elmina, Oct. 6, GNA - The names of 23 dead people have been deleted from voters registers in nine exhibition centres in Elmina and Coast townships since exhibition of voters registers began nation-wide on Sunday.

When GNA visited some of the centres on Tuesday, the exhibition assistant, at Akotobinsin Polling centre at Elmina, Ms Stella Andoh-Kessie said 14 out of the 864 registered voters have been reported dead by their relatives.

She said on Sunday, 73 people turned up to check their names, while an additional 21 had checked as at 13:10hrs on Monday, adding that the exercise was slow, but optimistic the turn out would increase before the exercise ends on Saturday.

At the Elmina CPB old Post office, Mr Henry Anowie, the exhibition official said 56 people checked their names on Sunday while 23 had checked as at 1100hrs on Monday.

In Cape Coast, at the Twi-Ndzi-Twi exhibition centre at Amanful, Mr Ebenezer Simpson, exhibition official said the names of seven dead people had been deleted from 800 voters and 85 people had so far checked their names.

Ms Grace Eshun, exhibition official at Amanful Catholic Primary School centre said the name of a dead person had been deleted from the register of 362 voters, while 28 people have checked their names, at the Catholic Primary JHS centre, the name of a dead person was deleted.

Mr Emmanuel Abiew, exhibition official at the Legion Hall 'A' exhibition centre near Cape Coast Castle, said of the 756 names on the register, 35 people had so far checked their names. He called on Ghanaians not to hesitate to check their names in the register early to avoid the usual last minute rush because that practice "does not help anybody".

Mr Abiew appealed to the Electoral Commission (EC) to intensify public education about the exercise, because almost everyone who checked their names complained of low publicity about the exercise. At the Legion Hall 'B' centre, Ms Elizabeth Baffoe, exhibition official said some people who came in to check on their names pointed out the names of some people they claimed to have died, but since they were not their relatives, they could not produce proof to enable her delete their names. Mr Thomas Amoo, exhibition official at the Municipal Council Centre said 15 of the 682 registered voters had turned up to check their names and appealed to people in the area to check their names early to avoid rush. 06 Oct. 08