Coronavirus: Cost of new register will be cheaper – JOY

A 2020 presidential hopeful Jacob Osei Yeboah (JOY) has argued that the cost of compiling a new voter’s register would be cheaper if the Electoral Commission (EC) decides to go ahead with the new voter registration exercises in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Ghana’s EC has said plans are far advanced to proceed with the registration exercises despite the outbreak of the deadly virus which has which claimed many lives around the world and infected seven people in the country.

But the EC’s decision is widely seen as a deviation from a ban on all social gatherings by the government to prevent the spread of the disease.

However, commenting on the EC’s decision, JOY told Blessed Sogah, host of Class91.3FM’s current affairs program State of the Nation that demand for election management logistics including biometric verification devices amongst others are at an all-time low, hence, could result in a possible reduction in the cost of the compilation of a new voter register for the December elections in Ghana.

“A lot of prices are actually coming down and so one would say that because the demand in the world is decreasing, if we look at demand and supply, it means that the cost should rather go down,” he said.

He added that “all over the world people are suspending their elections, they are suspending any mass gatherings and things like that and elections are actually mass gatherings, voting and things like that and so demand for the equipment will rather reduce”.

JOY also noted that he has picked intelligence which suggests that cases of coronavirus infections will drastically reduce by the end of the month of March 2020.