New voters' register: Over 13 million Ghanaians to be registered within first 21 days – EC

The Electoral Commission says it is likely to register over 13 million Ghanaians within the first 21 days of the mass registration exercise.

All things being equal, the Election Management Body (EMB) anticipates to register over 100 applicants per day, which same was attained by some regions during the just ended pilot registration.

A statement released by the Commission at the end of the pilot registration exercise, said: "The Commission is satisfied with the exercise and will use the lessons learnt to improve upon the conduct of the upcoming Voter Registration Exercise. The Commission is appreciative of the interest shown by the general public and political parties to make this pilot worthwhile.”

The EC has completed a pilot exercise on the Biometric Voter Registration system rolled-out in all the sixteen (16) regional capitals in the country.

The exercise among other things was to evaluate the preparedness of the Commission for the upcoming Voter Registration Exercise.

“The Exercise went on smoothly at all the designated centres, except in the Western region where the BVR Kit developed a fault on the second day. This led to the suspension of the Exercise in the Western region but afforded the Commission the opportunity to test its inbuilt processes of dealing with equipment breakdowns during the registration process,” the EC’s statement said.

"On the second day, the Volta Region and Ahafo Region had the highest number of applicants registered with 105 each. The region with the lowest applicants registered was North East with 51. Using the expected improved performance on the second day, the average number of registrants registered per day was 83 registrants."

"This metric is expected to only get better. We are to register over 100 registered applicants per kit per day, as was attained by some regions during the pilot. At that level of performance and with the continued enthusiastic participation of the Ghanaian public, the Commission is confident of registering some 13 million-plus applicants within the first 21 days of the mass registration exercise".