Voter registration: Applicants in Odorkor disregard EC’s queue management system

Some applicants in the Odorkor suburb of the Tweneboa electoral area seem to be disregarding the new Queue Management System introduced by the Electoral Commission (EC).

According to the EC, the new system is aimed at controlling applicant congestion at registration centers in the ongoing voter registration exercise. This new measure, intended to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, will allow applicants to be given chits that allow them to visit the registration center at specified times.

However, upon GhanaWeb’s visit to some registration centers in the area on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, overcrowding of applicants appeared to be still a glaring concern despite the EC’s resolve.

A registration officer, Benjamin Mensah, speaking to the news team at the Pentecost Printing Press registration center said some 36 applicants had so far registered and received their Voter Identification Cards at the time of our visit.

According to him, despite the disregard for COVID-19 safety protocols, not less than 150 applicants were expected to register per day.

“For the social distancing and other COVID-19 safety protocols, it's not been observed as it should because many of the applicants just want to get registered fast and leave so they always want to get close to us [the officials] to gain some favour to register,” the officer said.

“Though we caution them about the current era we’re in, most of them wouldn’t understand because everybody wants to cut across so we make sure that they all wash their hands with soap, check their temperatures, sanitize their hands and then progress with the process,” Mensah explained.

Another officer at the Hindu Monastery registration center of the area on his part said the machines being used for the registration exercise were working efficiently as expected though they called for more to expedite the exercise.

Nevertheless, the need for the applicants to follow the rules despite his team’s efforts to get applicants to adhere was also a problem at this center.

The compilation of a new voter's register by the Electoral Commission (EC) commenced on June 30, 2020 across all the districts in the country.

The exercise, which is expected to last for 38 days, is projected to capture the biometric data of about 17 million Ghanaians eligible to vote ahead of the 2020 December 7 general elections.