Party agents cautioned

Koforidua, May 8, GNA - The Eastern Regional Director of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Mr Charles Addai, has cautioned party agents operating at voter's registration centres to refrain from interfering with the work of electoral officers.

He warned them not to pester people who come there for registration or insist on copying names entered on registration forms because they are not supposed to handle the forms.

Mr Addai was speaking with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), at Koforidua on Monday following complaints by some registration officers that party agents were interfering with their work.

According to the NEC Director, while party agents are free to challenge the eligibility of people bothering on age, citizenship and double registration attempts, it is however wrong for them to subject people who met the criteria to rigorous interrogation, especially if the questions intruded their privacy.

"It is wrong for instance to ask for the profession, names and residences of people if they had already satisfied the electoral officers and it is especially wrong for the agents to follow them and ask further questions after they had left the registration centres", the NEC Director stated. On the exercise, Mr Addai said additional logistics have been provided to all the registration centres to replenish their stocks while publicity is being stepped up.

He said some registration centres were able to register between 50 to 100 people on the first day of the exercise saying there had so far not been any reported incident of double registration attempt and other electoral malpractice in the region.