EC urges continued vigilance at registration centres

The Electoral Commission (EC) has urged continued vigilance in the on-going biometric voter registration to assure the nation of a credible voters’ roll.

Mr Joshua Ofori Prempeh, the Afigya-Kwabre District Electoral Officer, said all should help to ensure that only qualified persons get their names into the new biometric voters register.

They should also have the courage to expose ineligible persons including the under-aged, insane and aliens.

However, he said, this should be done through the right procedure of filling a challenge form. Physically preventing anyone from registering was a violation of the law and must be avoided, he added.

The advice comes amidst reports of intimidation of applicants at some centres by a gang of thugs driving round in an unregistered vehicle.

Meanwhile, technical glitches that threatened the smooth running of the exercise at the start have generally been tackled and things are now going on pretty well.

At the Ntiribuoho centre in the Kwabre West Constituency, a total of 180 voters had been issued with Identification (ID) Cards as at the end of day two of the exercise.

Mr Anthony Obeng-Mensah, the Registration Officer, said 76 of them were registered on the first day and the remaining 104, the following day.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Candidate, Mr Kaakyire Oppong-Kyekyeku, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said he was satisfied with how things were going.

He appealed to the people to do everything to make the exercise peaceful.

Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Constituency Chairman, complained that the process was a bit too slow.

At the Kwadaso M/A Primary, where there are two centres, a total of 400 people had registered by the close of Sunday.

In all 1,400 voters have been targeted to be captured.

Mr Isaac Owusu Agyemang, a Registration Officer, told the GNA that they had not had any pr oblems so far.**