Registration exercise is to capture eligible voters - Mr Adoquaye

Accra, May 5, GNA - Mr Muhammed K. Adoquaye, Greater Accra Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), on Friday stated that the current registration exercise is to capture eligible voters, who did not have their names on the register. He said unlike the 2004 registrations exercise where all the polling stations in the country were used to compile the new national voters' register the current exercise was limited to designated electoral areas in the country.

Mr Adoquaye spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra when some officials of the Greater Accra EC went round some registrations centres in the Metropolis to get first hand information on what was going on at the centres.

He admitted that publicity for the whole exercise had been low but said everything was being done by the Commission to raise people's enthusiasm about the whole programme. Mrs Philomena Edusei, Deputy Director of the Greater Accra EC, said so far with the number of polling stations visited things were going on smoothly.

At 1145 hours when the EC delegation got to Salem Secondary School at Osu only three persons had registered. Mr Ernest Holm, Presiding Officer, said they received all their electoral materials on Thursday. He, however, expressed concern about the low media campaign about the exercise and urged the officials to accelerate the pace of the publicity.

At the La Kaajaanor Polling Centre the situation was not different as only five persons had registered at 1215 hours, four males and one female, who are between 18 years and 19 years. Mr Godfred Dontoh, the Presiding Officer, said he had not encountered any problem but only that the people were just not coming to register.

The story was the same at La Anglican JSS, Nungua Presbyterian Church Secondary and Nungua Secondary School where four; nine and 49 persons had registered, in that order 1320 hours. However, at the Nungua Kings Way Inn Centre, nobody had registered even though the presiding officer and his assistant were around.