Mr Kwadwo Sarfo- Katanka, the Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), has said political party agents should be blamed for the high rate of the registration of minors in the voters register.
He said party agents were sent to the registration centres among other things to monitor the process and their failure to challenge minors when they were being registered should be a concern to all.
Mr Sarfo Katanka said even though the biometric registration exercise was a good one, all Ghanaians should have been vigilant and cooperate with all stakeholders to challenge the registration of minors in the registration and exhibition exercise for the country to produce one of the best voter registers for the country.
He said this when addressing Parliamentary candidates, electoral officers and the media from 10 constituencies in the Northern part of the Eastern Region at a day’s dialogue at Mpraeso on Tuesday.
The dialogue was to enhance collaboration between the candidates, the EC and other stakeholders to ensure credible election in the constituency.
The constituencies included Atiwa East and West Fanteakwa, Afram Plains North and South, Nkawkaw, Mpraeso, Abetifi and New Abirem.
Mr. Sarfo-Katanka said the biometric registration had detected multiple registration and other malpractices as the people failed to challenge the registration of minors during the exercise throughout the country.
He warned that any minor who would try to vote during the December polls would be arrested and prosecuted.
Mr. Katanka said a little over 14 million voters had been registered in about 26,000 polling stations throughout the country for the polls.
He advised the district and municipal electoral officers to educate the electoral officials who would be recruited for the elections to abide by the rules and regulations to ensure free, fair and credible election.
Mr Samuel York Aidoo, a Director of Finance of the EC, urged all stakeholders to develop a keen interest in activities of the EC for them to understand the challenges and other technicalities of their operation.
He said copies of the voters register were being printed for distribution to all the political parties before the election.
The Eastern Regional Electoral Officer, Mr Paul Boateng, said the achievement of a credible general election for the country would be the responsibility of all stakeholders in the electoral process.
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