EC projects to register 700, 000 voter entrants

The Electoral Commission is projecting to register 700,000 Ghanaians who have attained the age of 18 and those who could not register in the last exercise.

The estimated figure was arrived at based on the research conducted by the Commission.

The registration exercise, which started today, Monday, June 17th and would end on Sunday, July 7th, would start from 0700 hours to 1800 hours on each day and would include weekends.

Mr Samuel Tettey, a Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Operations, said this at a media brief on the on-going limited voters’ registration exercise on Monday.

He explained that the registration exercise formed part of the EC's preparations towards the conduct of the referendum on the election of Metropolitan Municipal and District Chief Executives and the 2019 District Level Elections slated for December.

He said prior to the 2018 referendum, the EC captured close to 50, 000 voters under a registration exercise.

He said for the first time the registration centres would have the presence of security personnel to avert potential disruption.

Mr Tettey said the registration was taking place in all the EC's District Offices and that a total of 1,573 electoral areas had been designated nationwide to take care of people who were located at hard-to-reach areas.

On electoral materials, he explained that enough materials had been procured and delivered at all registration centres.

Mr Tettey said the Commission would use two methods namely the Voter Management System and Biometric Voter Registration Machines to register qualified applicants.

In that regard, he said all the equipment had been tested to ensure that they were functional before they were deployed.

As required by law, he stated that names and pictures of registration officials had been submitted to political parties at the national, regional and district officers.

Touching on media publicity, Mr Tettey said the Commission was using channels including television, radio, documentary drama, posters, and flyers to educate the public on electoral processes and its purpose.