EC yet to receive full kits procured for the registration exercise

With just about three weeks to the start of the compilation of a new voter’s register, the Electoral Commission is yet to receive the full consignment of kits purchased for the exercise.

The Commission has procured 8,000 biometric voter registration (BVR) kits to be used for the June-July registration and elections in December respectively.

But the Director of Electoral Services at EC, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, told TV3’s ‘The Key Points’, Saturday, that the Commission is expecting to receive all the kits before the start of the exercise.

“Some are already in, others are on their way coming,” he told Abena Tabi who hosts the show.

Dr. Quaicoe would not commit himself, when asked about the number of BVR kits that are already.

“I wouldn’t want to comment on that,” he said unequivocally.

He however confirmed that the kits used in the 16 regional centres during the pilot registration exercise were “very new”, indicating they are part of the consignment the EC has already taken delivery of.

This further dispels claims that what were used in Tuesday and Wednesday were the old kits.

“I personally did the delivery of the 16 kits, they were all very new, test done on Tuesday, there wasn’t any 2016 kits,” Dr. Quaicoe stressed, “all the 16 kits were first used on Tuesday.”

Registration in phases

Meanwhile, the Director of Electoral Service at EC reiterated that the impending registration exercise would be done in five phases.

In order to cover all the 33,367 polling centres, the electoral body will roll out 6,680 teams. Each team will have one kit and spend six days during each phase.

He assured that the registration exercise will start within the last week in June “but we have not finalized the exact date”.