General News of 2012-05-07

Prisoners unwilling to register – Afari Gyan

The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr Afari Gyan has noted that checks at various prisons indicate that most prisoners are actually unwilling to be registered.

The nationwide 40-day biometric voter registration ended on Saturday but the Electoral Commission was not able to register prisoners across the country as initially planned.

Meanwhile, the country’s electoral body has been accused of intentionally putting impediment in the ways of prisoners to keep them from registering and voting in the forthcoming polls.

But Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan in an interview with Joy News dismissed reports that the Commission is making it difficult for the prison service to register inmates.

He said: “Nsawam has a population of over 3000, as far as I known and informed by the prison authorities, less than a 1000 have indicated their willingness to register. So please people who are saying that the Electoral Commission is trying to put impediment - we are not putting impediment on anybody’s way.”

He explained that the EC was not able to register the prisoners as ordered by the court because the prison authorities requested that they were given time to sort out actual Ghanaians in prison, because some foreigners who are in prison are using Ghanaian names.

“We will register those of them who are qualified to be registered and willing to do so, and they can vote in the 2012 elections,” he said and questioned: “People keep saying we don’t want to register...Do I stand to gain anything if we don’t register prisoners? Do I stand to lose anything if we register prisoners?"