Biometric voters' registration progresses in Wa Municipality

The intermittent faltering of biometric voters’ registration kits that characterized the first day of the registration exercise in the Wa Municipality has been resolved.

When the Ghana News Agency visited some registration centres in the area on Monday, it observed smoother processing of documents and high turn-outs.

At the Methodist School registration centre, which recorded 325 voters on the first two days of the exercise, 102 voters were captured as at 1100 hours on Monday.

Mr. Abudulai Alhassan Toure, registration officer in charge of the centre, said that, agents of both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) were bringing people to register at the centre.

He said most of these people had no identity cards, and registration officers had to screen them intensively before allowing them to register.

Mr Toure said one Zakaria Mujeeb, a minor who gave his date of birth as September 9, 1994 was rejected by the computer and when he later came back with a different date of March 19, 1994, it was also rejected.

Two sets of kits were being used for the exercise at all the eight registration centres visited by the GNA.

At the new Post Office Centre at Kabanye, the registration officer in charge of one of the kits, Mr. Adams Yussif, said 58 people registered on the first day of the exercise and the figure rose to 90 on the second day and as at 0950 hours on Monday, 31 had registered.

He attributed the slow pace of the exercise on the first day to the scanner, which was unable to pick all the finger prints of prospective voters and the computer freezing at certain times of that day.

At the Zongo Daily Market registration centre, 66 voters were captured on the first day, 123 on the second day and 46 as at 1000 hours on Monday.

The registration officer, Mr. Seidu Iddrisu Adams, also complained about scanning problems on the first day.

He also observed that the figures recorded in the manual documents were not corresponding to what was on the computer.

At the Nayiri registration centre, GNA discovered that a about 170 voters were captured on Saturday, 214 on Sunday and 66 as at 1015 hours on Monday.

A lady registration officer at the Wa Community centre registration centre refused to talk to the media.

“We have been instructed not to tell the media or the press about what is happening here. If you want information go to the Returning Officer or the Director. I cannot tell you anything”, she stressed.

Only the NDC and NPP had agents at the various centres to observe what was going on.

The exercise, which began throughout the country on Saturday March 24, and expected to end on May 5, will produce a new biometric voters’ register for Election 2012.**