Most Officials of the biometric voters’ registration in the Ashanti region, say they do not support the idea of a wholesale extension of the exercise which ended on May 5.
They are of the view that the 40-days period for the registration exercise has been very successful in terms of the number of applicants who turned out to have their names compiled in the new voters roll.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in some registration centres across the region on the last day of the exercise, the officials said there have been virtually empty queues, an indication that, almost everybody who wanted to register had done so.
Mr Andrews Appiah-Agyei, Registration Officer at the Pioneer Printing Press Registration Centre in the Subin constituency, said the number of applicants reduce daily since the beginning of the fourth phase of the exercise.
He said it would be a waste of resources for the Electoral Commission (EC) to extend it.
As at 1130 hours of the last day, only 3 applicants had registered while 24 were registered on the ninth day.
Madam Mary Osei Sarfo, Registration Officer at the Central International School Upper Centre, also in the Subin constituency, said most of the applicants registered during the first and second phases of the exercise.
As at 1100 hours on the last day, only five applicants had registered.
Mr James Atta, Registration Officer at the Glory of God Ministry centre at Heman Buoho, in the Kwabre West constituency, said there was no need to extend the exercise after the forty days.
As at 0930 hours on the tenth day when the GNA visited the centre, only four applicants had registered.
Mr Isaac Owusu, Deputy Ashanti Regional Electoral Officer, told the GNA that the region had so far recorded over 90 per cent success in the exercise.
He said there would be no need for “a blanket extension” since most people had already registered.
Mr Owusu however said his outfit has identified some few centres where severe technical challenges denied some eligible applicants the opportunity to register and were compiling the names of those centres to the EC head office to see if there could be a mop-up in those areas.
He said by the close of the third phase, the region had recorded 2.2 million people.
On the issue of double registration, Mr Owusu said while some were deliberate, others were due to technical problems, adding that, investigations are being carried out to resolve the issues.**
