EC wants system of periodic nationwide registration exercises scrapped

The Electoral Commission has proposed to do away with the system of periodic nationwide registration exercises, and institute an all-round system where citizens who turn 18, or persons who have not previously registered, may visit any district office with their Ghana Card or passport and register as voters.

Madam Jean Mensa says this will help the Commission do away with nationwide registration exercises and go a long way to reducing the cost of elections.

They also propose a year-round exhibition system that will enable citizens to check their registration details on their smartphones and other mobile devices.

“Citizens would not need to wait for an exhibition exercise to check their details. They will be able to do so, all year round,” Jean Mensa said in her speech to IPAC during the assessment of the 2020 election.

The Commission also propose to build further efficiency into their collation process by focusing on data entry only at the Constituency Collation Centre. The entry point for data capturing into the system will be at the Constituency Collation Centre.

The data i.e. Constituency Collation Results will be made available to all stakeholders at the Regional and National levels. Flowing from the data captured at the Constituency Collation Centre, the system will generate regional and national reports without further data entry at any of those levels. By adopting this system, the problem of minor inaccuracies with the collation process and unnecessary delays will be reduced significantly.