Voters register: EC provides detailed explanation to Cluster and Phasing system

Deputy Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Electoral Commission, Fred Tetteh has proffered a detailed explanation of the Cluster and Phasing system adopted by the EC in the compilation of a new voters register.

On June 30, 2020, the Electoral commission commenced the compilation of the new voters compilation but despite numerous assurances given by the commission to ensure safety protocols, there were several reports of excesses in a number of areas.

Most of which arose from confusion over the Cluster and Phasing system in the exercise.

In an attempt to demystify the misunderstanding around the system, Fred Tetteh explained that contrary to claims that the system is cumbersome, it is rather simpler and that registrants have refused to read instruction at the stations.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb at the Sakumono Estate Complex School 1 on the first day of registration, Mr Tetteh clarified that the Cluster and Phasing System only means that five polling stations in a particular area have been merged (cluster) and given one registration centre.

However, Registration Officials will attend to registrants in the various polling stations in the cluster on different days.

He indicated that registrants in the first polling station in the cluster group will be attended to for six days after which the EC will take a day off to replenish and begin another polling station in the same cluster for another six days.

“In actual sense, we use the word cluster to qualify a team, so you have a team manning a group of registration centres which in other words is the same as polling stations. So, you have five polling stations put together that forms a cluster. So, these five polling stations each of them will be taken at a time, so polling station 1 in cluster 1 will be served for six days. Then they move to polling station B in that cluster and they serve it for the next six days. That’s how it will go in five phases.”

With regards to accusations that the EC did not advertise the clusters and mode the of movement, he said all of such information have been posted at the registrations centres but registrants have failed to read and make meaning out of it.

“Every polling station within the cluster that will be served, we’ve posted the notice of movement of the team in front of the centres…and they’re indicating the times they’ll be there so that people will not rush…,” Fred Tetteh posited.