We are sorry - Afari-Gyan

Dodowa (GAR), Aug. 13, GNA - Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), on Wednesday apologized to Ghanaians for the problems encountered during the just-ended limited registration exercise

to capture persons who have turned 18 years and those who do not have their names on the voters' register.

"The Electoral Commission is aware that there was double registration, the registration of under-aged children and non-Ghanaians and we are sorry for that," he said at a workshop for People with Disability (PWD) at Dodowa.

The EC was overwhelmed by huge crowds, well beyond the 800,000 to one million it had projected to capture.

The EC Chairman noted that in Greater Accra Region alone it was estimated that about one million people registered and that had never happened before in the history of the EC as far as registration in Greater Accra was concerned.

Dr. Afari-Gyan also apologized to the Ghana Federation for the Disabled for all the problems that PWDs went through during the voters' registration exercise.

He called on the Federation to sensitize its members on the electoral process so that they could also take part in the decision making of the country.

The EC extended the 11-day exercise by two days, but there were still crowds in the queue when it officially ended on Tuesday night. The exercise, which started on July 31, was plagued by huge operational challenges including shortage of registration forms and other logistics, slow process, confusion and violence. The two main political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC), traded accusations about violence, registration of minors and confusion that characterised the exercise. Mr Joseph Adu Boampong, 1st Vice President of the Ghana Federation of the Disabled, thanked the Gender and Disability Desk of the EC for the initiative to educate members on the electoral process. "This initiative signifies that the Ghanaian society has realized that Ghana cannot move forward if 10 per cent of its population is excluded from national decision making," he added. He appealed to the EC to train polling agents in the use of the tactile ballot papers for people with visual impairment and the use of sign language for those with hearing problems. "Furthermore all polling stations should be accessible to all categories of PWDs," he emphasized.

Mr. Eric Opoku, Governance Programme Officer of the United Nations Development Programme, said the National Human Development Report for 2007 highlighted incidents of social exclusion in the country hence the UNDP's decision to sponsor the workshop to help address some of the problems reported. He pledged the UNDP's commitment to work with all stakeholders in this year's election to ensure its success.