EC apologizes to 18-year-old wrongly arrested over double registration

The Electoral Commission (EC) office in the New Juaben South municipality of the Eastern Region has issued an apology to a parent and his 18-year-old son who was wrongfully arrested on Saturday over allegations of attempting to re-register.

The Municipal Director of EC, Kofi Asante Owusu, clarified on Monday during a close door meeting that although the names of the two minors were removed from the voter register at the Constituency level in response to a petition by the parent in 2020 but the particulars were not deleted from the database at the headquarters hence the unfortunate incident.

“The incident has traumatized my son, which is no fault of his,” expressed Martin Yaw Boateng, the aggrieved parent.

The young victim, however, has decided not to register again and has returned to school.

Nana Yaw Boateng revealed that his son and daughter who were 14 and 12 years old respectively were unlawfully registered in 2020 by unknown political actors allegedly associated with the ruling party against their will.

“I humbly submit this letter to your good office to plead with your highly esteemed office to delete the names, Boateng Kwakye Martin age 14 years with Voter ID Card No. 2588022436, and Boateng Akosua Pomaa age 12 years with Voter ID Card No. 2588022035 who are minors but were registered with false information by unknown persons from the Electoral Register. Please find attached a copy of a supporting Affidavit sworn by my humble self. Counting on your usual co-operation” copy of the letter stated.

Despite formal requests for the removal of their names from the register in 2020, the son’s name remained, leading to his arrest for double registration.

Meanwhile, the EC commenced its limited voter registration exercise targeting first-time voters and those seeking to obtain a voter card.

Chairperson Madam Jean Mensa stated that the exercise aims to register approximately 623,000 first-time voters nationwide.

However, challenges with online registration prompted the EC to announce the commencement of offline voter registration on May 9, 2024.

Despite the shift to offline registration, there are persistent delays and long queues at registration centres, leading to incomplete registrations before the end of the day.