EC records 12,000 to 15,000 double registration

The Electoral Commission (EC) recorded between 12, 000 to 15,000 multiple registrations at the end of the biometric voter registration exercise, Mr. Safo Kantanka, Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Finance and Administration has said.

He said the EC was still compiling the registration figures nationwide and also cross checking to find out areas of multiple registration and accidental multiple registrations.

Mr. Safo Kantanka said this at the opening of a one-day workshop in Koforidua on Thursday, to educate political party executives on the in-built integrity of Ghana’s electoral process.

The programme, which was organized under the theme “The in-built integrity of Ghana’s electoral process”, was attended by 22 regional executive members from nine registered political parties in the Eastern Region.

Mr. Kantanka said some of the multiple registrations were accidental in cases where an EC official who was not satisfied with the quality of the picture of a voter during the registration exercise, requested to retake the picture and the biometric registration machine registered it as a multiple registration.

He said the EC supported the presence of polling agents of the political parties at the polling stations to enable the parties to witness the conduct of the elections as part of the in-built integrity process of the system.

Mr. Kantanka appealed to political parties to appoint knowledgeable people as their agents and said polling agents who understand the electoral system would not cause problems at the polling or registration centres.

He said during the elections, the EC would be providing verification machines at all the polling stations in the country with back-ups in case of break downs.

Mr. Kantanka said as part of planning for the smooth running of the elections, the EC would be engaging the representatives of the political parties at the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) to decide what should be done in a situation where a verification machine breaks down and the other equipment brought in to replace it also breaks down.

He said if the verification equipment arrived early, it would be tested during the exhibition of the voters register in August.

Mr. Paul Boateng, the Eastern Regional Director of the EC, said ensuring the integrity of an electoral system was a collective responsibility which would only work if all the stakeholders in the elections would play their roles and be prepared to work within the confines of the electoral law.**