Extend voter registration period of Prisoners - NPP MP urges EC

Member of Parliament for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Frank Annor Dompreh has pleaded with the Electoral Commission(EC) imploring it to extend the just ended registration exercise for inmates of the various prisons countrywide.

Mr. Dompreh said the exercise had been fraught with some challenges which prevented the Commission to capture as many as possible inmates who were willing to register.

In his jurisdiction for instance, he complained that out of a total of 2000 registrable inmates at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons, a little above 100 were able to register in the exercise.

“Thongs of the inmates turned up at the centre to get registered. Although the exercise is not compulsory, a number of them queued at the centre to register. I was surprised that prisoners who have limited rights were made to go through the same process and requirement just as civilians,” he argued.

He’s prayed the EC to consider giving some two day window for a mop up with enough notification so those who were unable to register could be given the chance to do so.

Meanwhile some of the inmates who earlier spoke to Kasapafmonline.com complained the exercise is not flexible, which they claimed will leave many disenfranchised in the 2016 polls.

“…The problem is that the officers are trying to deny us from registering. The reason is they are telling us to call our family members to come and serve as guarantors for us. But the question is through what means should we the prisoners call our family members? We are in a cage … so what about if somebody is in Tamale what do we do?

“We have on our record indicating Ghanaians and foreigners. Whoever is a foreigner, it has been indicated on his warrant as well as Ghanaians. We have Police, we have Prison officers, soldiers, teachers and a lot of people … so are you going to deny all these Ghanaians from registering?” one of the inmates who wanted to remain anonymous told Kasapafmonline.com on Monday.

The two day registration exercise meant for the inmates of the various prison facilities across the country ended Tuesday, August 23, 2016.