Cooperate to make registration exercise successful - EC to stakeholders

The Electoral Commission has called on all its stakeholders to co-operate with it to make the compilation of the new voters register a success.

It said it had also written to the Ghana Police Service for assistance to protect the registration materials and other properties of the commission before, during and after the exercise.

This was contained in a statement signed by its acting Director of Public Affairs, Mrs Sylvia Annoh, after the EC had met representatives of 17 political parties at an Inter-Party

Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting in Accra last Wednesday to discuss the compilation of the new voters register.

It said at the meeting, the EC communicated to the participants the decisions it had taken regarding the voter registration exercise.

Decisions

The statement said the commission informed the participants that the registration exercise had been slated for the last week of June to the end of July 2020.

It said the exercise, which would start each day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m, would take place at all the 33,367 polling stations, which will serve as registration centres nationwide.

Cluster registration

The statement said the EC would adopt the cluster system of registration during the upcoming exercise.

“It will be done simultaneously in all the districts/constituencies nationwide with each cluster consisting of five (5) registration centres. In all, there will be five (5) phases during the registration period with each registration team working for a period of six (6) days in each phase within the cluster. However, a day is set aside to assemble and prepare the materials for the next phase,” it explained.

The statement said information on the movement plan of the registration teams would be communicated to all stakeholders.

Criteria

To qualify for registration, it said, an applicant must be a Ghanaian citizen, 18 years of age or older, of sound mind, resident or ordinarily resident in an electoral area and not prohibited by any law in force from registering as a voter.

It said all eligible voters would be given instant voter ID cards when they register, except in cases where applications had been challenged.

Kits

The statement said all materials needed for the registration exercise had been procured.

It added that each district would be allocated a number of Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits depending on the number of clusters it had in order to perform its functions satisfactorily.

The commission, it said, would use three days for a mop-up exercise which would be done at the end of the main registration exercise.

“This exercise is meant for eligible applicants who could not be captured during the main registration exercise,” it added.

The statement listed the Ghana passport and Ghana card as the documents to be presented at the registration centre by an applicant to prove his/her eligibility.

It, however, said in the absence of the two documents, an applicant would need two guarantors who were registered voters to guarantee his/her application for registration.

It said a guarantor could only guarantee for up to 10 applicants.

“Agents of political parties are to refrain from physically preventing suspected unqualified applicants from registering but should rather resort to the challenge mechanism,” it stated.

Participants

It said representatives of the nine political parties, namely the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG); the New Vision Party (NVP); the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP); the Progressive People’s Party (PPP); the Convention People’s Party (CPP); the New Patriotic Party (NPP); the People’s National Convention (PNC); Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere (EGLE) Party and the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), took part in the first session.

It said for the second session, the Unity Development System Party (UDS); United Reformed Party (URP); the Democratic People’s Party (DPP); the Ghana National Party (GNP); the Ghana Union Movement (GUM); the National Democratic Party (NDP); the Power Unity Party PUP) and the All People’s Congress (APC), were represented at the meeting.

It was also attended by some civil society organisations and development partners.