Refrain from abusing guarantorship system - NPP Volta Reg. Sec

Mr Joseph Homenya, Volta Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has warned that groups or individuals who would abuse the guarantorship system ascribed in Constitutional Instrument C. I) 126, would be dealt with according to law.

He said the party's intelligence points to some unscrupulous entities exploiting the registration system to becoming "guarantor contractors" and dabbling in multiple guarantorship schemes for registrants beyond the legally prescribed number.

Mr Homenya disclosed these to the Ghana News Agency on Monday in an interview on his assessment of the first phase of the new voter registration exercise in the region and matters arising.

He said the C. I instructs that a registered voter can guarantee for 10 prospective registrants.

He said the in-built features of the current Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) machine was capable of revealing those recalcitrant individuals who would deliberately indulge in such criminal activities, advising them to refrain from the act or be exposed and prosecuted at the appropriate time.

"With this BVR kit, one can run but cannot hide," he said.

The Regional Secretary said the party would not allow non-Ghanaians to be part of the registration exercise and would clampdown on all attempts to gain undue advantage by any political party.

On the first six days, Mr Homenya expressed satisfaction but called for improvement especially on the observance of safety and health protocols and measures.

His counterpart from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr James Gunu said the exercise was a disaster fraught with many irregularities.

He said turnout has been encouraging but the data capturing aspect of the exercise has been exceptionally slow.

He said the BVR machine failed to work in some instances, delaying the start of the exercise as some prospective registrants wearing blue tops were asked to change them due to the blue background of the EC's platform for pictures.

He said the party expected the EC to provide more signages to direct registrants to registration centres and should abide by its decision to provide mobile backups.

The two Regional Secretaries appealed to qualified Ghanaians with sound and 18 years and above to take advantage and register.