Limited voter registration: NDC supporters being disenfranchised is palpable falsehood - EC

The Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, has refuted claims by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the Commission is depriving eligible persons in the party's strongholds of the right to register their names in the ongoing voter's limited registration exercise.

The Eastern Regional Secretariat of the National Democratic Congress has expressed dissatisfaction with the EC over the technical issues that affected the registration exercise on its first day.

"The EC's approach to this year's Limited Registration Exercise in the Eastern Region is a lazy man's approach and must be a concern to all stakeholders. Almost all the constituencies were not able to start registration today, May 7, 2024, at the time given by the EC itself. As of 1 pm on the first registration day, about 95% of constituencies in the Eastern Region had not started the exercise due to challenges best known to the EC alone.

"This is a clear sign of the incompetent technical team of the EC, who are sub-standard and can't manage a transparent and incident-free election process. It must be recalled how this same team managed our District Level elections last year, with some districts having to postpone their elections to a later date," a statement by the NDC read.

They have also described these challenges as a "lazy man's approach," and some members accuse the EC of trying to disenfranchise their supporters.

Responding to the allegations on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show with Kwami Sefa Kayi, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe explained that the glitches are not out of the ordinary.

He noted that it has never been their intention to send out faulty machines; however, they have enough machines and backups to replace any faulty machine and do their work effectively.

He also argued that the EC and their officials never concern themselves with a registrant's political affiliation; hence, there is no way they can favor one political party over another.

"As far as we are concerned, we're registering Ghanaians; we're not registering politicians," he responded.

He also challenged the claims of the Commission depriving NDC faithful from partaking in the registration exercise, which commenced on Tuesday, May 7, and will end on Monday, May 20, asserting, "There's no evidence anywhere to say we're disenfranchising anyone at one center... It is not true."