UG students appeal for additional registration centres

Students of the University of Ghana are asking the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana to, as a matter of urgency, provide two more registration centres on campus to enable more students to complete the process to be captured on the electoral roll.

The demand comes just a day after the opposition New Patriotic Party’s vice presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, expressed similar concerns after a tour of the university campus Wednesday May 4, indicating that the current situation as was a “practical disenfranchisement of the students”.

The President of the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) of the university, Davis Ohene Fobih who addressed a news conference on Thursday May 5, revealed that some eighty per cent of eligible students have not registered, due to the long queues that have characterised the only centre in the institution.

“What is worst is that we are in an examination period and very soon school will go on recess, by which time the registration has ended. This is very perturbing and does not ensure fairness. It will infringe on the rights of students in engaging in the political process and will take away our voice in determining who our leaders should be and how we think the affairs of our nation should be run,” he explained.

The second phase of the registration window kicked off Wednesday May 4.

Meanwhile, the Greater Accra Regional Director of the EC, Kwame Amoah has explained that: “Legon campus is part of an electoral area and every electoral area was assigned to a centre but the students between 18 and 21 years seems to be high, which has resulted in pressure at the area.”

He, however, indicated that the EC would put in measures to ensure that all eligible students were registered but failed to indicate whether new centres would be added to speed up the process.