Slow take-off of revision of voters register

Cape Coast, May 05, GNA - There was a low turnout of people to register in all the seven centres visited by the Ghana News Agency in Cape Coast when the revision of voters register took off on Friday.

There were no queues, and at the Ayiko-Ayiko Mosque centre, only one person had turned up to register as at 0800 hours, while five had turned up at the Amanful Methodist church centre by 0830. At Amanful Catholic primary and JSS centres, no one had turned up to register, when GNA got there at between 0840 and 0845 hours, respectively.

Three persons had registered at the Kroo Town registration as at 0901 hours and no one, at the TsimTsimhwe/Kotokuraba and Kadadwen centres at 0914 and 0925 hours respectively. Returning officers at the centres, told the GNA that no one had

turned up to have the names of any deceased persons deleted from the register. Mrs Elizabeth Baafo, returning officer at Amanful Catholic primary registration centre, attributed the low turn out to inadequate information on the exercise, and called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to intensify education about the exercise, which should be extended to churches, mosques and market places. The situation was not different at Elmina, when the GNA visited

eight registration centres at Iture/Nkontrodo, Amissano, Ntranoa, Ankaful, Akotobinsin, Sybil Awenee, Sea View and Market Square. Between 0800 and 0830hrs, a person each had registered at Iture/Nkontrodo, Amissano and Ankaful while nobody had registered at Ntranoa and Sybil Awenee as at 0800 and 0920hrs

espectively. The Market Square and Sea View centres had registered seven and nine people respectively. At Akotobinsin, the registration officer told the GNA that three of the four people who had registered at the centre had just turned 18. All the registration officers suggested that the EC should use

their information vans to intensify publicity on the exercise in the

various communities to create more awareness. They were however of the view, that the turn out would pick up, before the end of the exercise on Sunday, May 14. However, when Mr Ebenezer Hagan, Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) electoral officer, was contacted about the concerns of the low turn out due to inadequate

publicity, he said a sensitisation programme was carried out before the exercise. He gave the assurance that the Commission would intensify publicity on the exercise. Mr Hagan said an estimated 1,000,000 people nationwide, were expected to register during the six-day exercise.