Voter registration: Mop-up exercise in Ellembelle witnesses low figure

Correspondence from Western Region

The Electoral Commission (EC) in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region registered 120 eligible applicants in its voter register in the just ended mop-up registration exercise.

The EC commenced a 38-day nationwide voters' registration exercise on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, and ended on Thursday, August 6, 2020, in 33,367 registration centres. It was done in six (6) phases.

However, the EC after the mass voters' registration exercise, conducted a 2-day mop-up registration exercise which was started on Saturday, August 8, 2020, and ended on Sunday, August 9, 2020, at the various EC's District offices across the country, to register the eligible voters who were unable to register due to some reasons in the mass exercise.

A visit by the GhanaWeb on Sunday afternoon, August 9, 2020, in Ellembelle District at the EC's office, Nkroful, witnessed a very low turn-out.

Apart from the low turn-out, the exercise ended peacefully without any hitches.

The EC stationed a Veronica Bucket with liquid soap and paper tissue at the premises to allow eligible applicants to wash their hands against the Coronavirus pandemic and a professional health officer was engaged to screen the applicants and other observers.

Speaking to some EC Officials immediately after the mop-up exercise, they disclosed to GhanaWeb that they were able to register only 46 eligible applicants on Saturday, August 8 in the day one of the exercise.

They added that they were also able to register 74 eligible applicants on Sunday, August 9, 2020.

They declined to disclose to GhanaWeb why they could not register more eligible people.

Speaking to the agents of the two main political parties at the centre, they to blame the EC for the low figure recorded in the two-day mop-up exercise.

They said the EC did not do any public education and announcement about the exercise adding that "the timing for the mop-up exercise was bad, the EC was supposed to give at least one week notice before the mop-up exercise".

"They didn't do any public education and announcement about this very exercise, it was even we the political parties that informed our members and others that the EC was going to do a mop-up exercise at the EC office at Nkroful and in some cases we have to pay for their lorry fares", they stated.

They concluded, "Going forward the EC must plan well before embarking on any important exercise and also intensify its public education to avoid any embarrassment".

The EC was able to register a little over 16 million eligible Ghanaians during the 38-day mass voters' registration exercise across the country.

Meanwhile, the EC was able to register a total of 1,103,728 eligible voters in the 38-day mass voters' registration exercise in the Western Region.