EC ready for voter registration exercise; targets 622,000 new voters

The Electoral Commission (EC) will begin registering new voters on the electoral roll on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in a major exercise ahead of the 2024 General Election.

The exercise, which is in accordance with Article 45 of the 1992 Constitution, will take place at the 268 District Offices of the Commission across the country and will end on May 27, 2024.

The 21-day exercise will commence at 0700 hours and close at 1800 hours each day during the scheduled period.

The EC says it will deploy mobile teams to register voters in 785 polling stations in “unwieldy areas” where voters may find it difficult to access the district offices of the Commission, in addition to 25 public universities that have resident students.

The registration exercise would afford Ghanaians who have attained the voting age of 18 years since the last registration in September 2023 and others who are more than 18 years old but could not register during the last registration exercise to do so.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Monday, Mrs Jean Mensa, Chairperson, EC, said all logistics had been deployed for the registration exercise to commence smoothly across the country beginning Tuesday.

She said the Commission aimed to register 622,000 new voters by the end of the operation, and that 3,277 regular and temporary electoral officers had been trained and deployed for the purpose.

Mrs Mensa said the mobile teams that would be deployed to the “unwieldy areas” would spend two days at the selected polling stations and three days at the selected public universities.

She said the Commission had published the movement plans of the mobile teams on its website and shared them with political parties to facilitate tracking and access.

“We have effectively distributed all our materials to the regions and districts, and we are confident that there will be no short supply.

“Additionally, our biometric voter registration kits as well as spare kits to serve as backups have been distributed to the regions and districts,” she said.

The EC Chairperson said the ongoing power outages would not disrupt the registration exercise, adding that district officers had been tasked to rent generators to support their operations in the event of power cuts.

Mrs Mensa said the Commission would adopt the existing Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2016 (C.I. 91) (1) as Amended, for the upcoming registration exercise.

This means that eligible voters can use either the Ghana Card or the Ghana Passport to establish their identity as Ghanaians.

In the absence of the two identification documents, applicants would be required to present two people who are already registered voters to vouch for their citizenship and age.

Mrs Mensa cautioned interested parties against bussing minors to registration centres and served notice that the EC in collaboration with law enforcement agencies would act against offenders.

Giving an update on the two temporal officers who were withdrawn from the last bye-election in Ejisu, the EC Chairperson said investigations were ongoing and assured that the Commission would follow the issue to the letter.

“The two temporal officers will not be shielded should they be found guilty,” she said.