Why we must all go and check our names

Today is Day Four of  the ongoing voters register exhibition and the re-registration of voters whose names have been deleted from the electoral roll because they used National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards to register.

While the exhibition exercise has been extended from the usual 10 to 14 days to 21 days, the re-registration will end in 10 days’ time.

The importance of the two national exercises cannot be downplayed, since they form a crucial part of the entire electoral process towards the attainment of a free and fair Election 2016.

Notwithstanding that, participation in the two-prong exercise which began last Monday has so far been slow and is in trickles. 

It, therefore, behoves all and sundry to help drum home the point for all to actively participate in the national exercise. 

We cannot wait for the last moment to rush to the centres to either go and check our details in the register or go for re-registration.

This is even more paramount for persons who are re-registering due to the deletion of their names from the register. 

The extended duration, among other reasons, will ensure that voters get to know their polling stations due to the increase in the number of polling stations by the Electoral Commission from 26,000 to 29,000.

More importantly, active participation in the exhibition exercise, which is utilising biometric verification devices (BVDs), will also afford the EC and its officials the opportunity to have a fair sense of the number of people who may have challenges in being verified by the devices and for which reason they would require manual verification.

Beyond these, the Daily Graphic agrees with the view of the EC Chairperson, Mrs Charlotte Osei, that the process could be enhanced if registered voters did not wait till the last moment to rush to the centres to check their details. 

 The Daily Graphic calls on all stakeholders, including traditional authorities, to come on board to help the EC come up with the finalised, clean and credible register, as well as meet the rest of its plans towards Election 2016.

The Daily Graphic shares in Mrs Osei’s sentiments that since “elections belong to the people and we all have the privilege to select those who govern us, then all stakeholders have a duty and a shared responsibility towards ensuring free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections whose outcome will be accepted by all and sundry”.

While we call on all eligible voters to hurry to the centres, it is important for the EC to step up its public educational campaigns that will convince voters to respond to the call to check their names or re-register.

The hour is now to be counted among eligible voters.