Voters registration: Officials lament presence of ‘machomen’ at registration centre

Officials of the Electoral Commission working at the Former Safo Adu Clinic registration center at Mamobi in the Ayawaso North Constituency have lamented the presence of some ‘Machomen’ around the registration center where they have been working since Sunday.

The Electoaral Commission of Ghana commenced the fourth phase of its new voters registration exercise on Sunday July 19, 2020.

Visiting the Former Safo Adu’s Clinic on Monday, July 20, 2020, the EC officials told GhanaWeb that even though the days work has so far been calm and successful they’ve had to deal with the presence of some muscled men and their controversies around the center which actually brought about some chaos and misunderstanding the previous day.

According to the Registration Officer at the center, Michael Dirosi Dohon, the situation was as a result of some party agents having issues with the residential status of some applicants who turned up at the center.

“The party agents have been challenging each other and it brings about chaos and riots since yesterday. They claim some of the applicants are not residents of the area,” he lamented.

He however mentioned that they try as much as possible to resolve the issues by getting the party agents to reach a consensus and to also make use of the applicant challenge form when necessary.

Machomen are coming around to just cause confusion and we don’t want that. So we call them (party agents) and then we talk to them. When we talk to them, they agree to one decision. If they are supposed to challenge, they challenge peacefully and if they are supposed to withdraw, they withdraw so that there will not be any chaos. That’s what have been doing. The police is also here and they try to ensure calm and also ensure adherence to the safety protocols,” he said.

The EC commenced its compilation of a new voters register on June 30, and is expected to end the exercise on July 6, 2020.