EC deploys mobile team to augment registration exercise

The Ashanti Regional Office of the Electoral Commission (EC) has deployed its mobile team to support the ongoing voter registration exercise.

This is to help facilitate work at centres having challenges with their registration machines.

The EC is undertaking the exercise in a total of 1,196 designated centres across the Region to compile a new voters’ register for the December General Election.

Mr Benjamin Bano-Bio, the Regional Director of the EC, told the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi that the Commission had put in place the necessary measures to overcome expected challenges in the course of the registration.

He said the mobile team was on standby to attend to emergencies, noting that the EC was committed to conducting a smooth exercise.

The officials would be at work throughout the five-phased exercise as they mount regular patrols until the programme ends in August.

A visit by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) to the State Experimental Primary Registration Centre saw the mobile team at work, assisting with the processes as applicants queued in groups to be registered.

The Centre had faced challenges on the first day of work as the EC’s registration devices slowed down occasionally, thereby delaying the processes.

Mr Addo Benson, the Registration Officer, in an interview with the GNA, said in spite of those challenges, the exercise had so far been conducted peacefully with strict adherence to the COVID-19 safety protocols.

At Bantama, Subin, Asokore-Mampong and other areas visited the GNA visited, registration was on course with most centres registering an average of 70-90 people as at 1600 hours on the second day.

The various political parties had their agents at the centres monitoring the registration processes.