EC to conduct mop-up registration in SHSs without centres on Saturday

The Electoral Commission (EC) is expected to organise a mop-up registration in all Senior High Schools (SHSs) without registration centres across the country on Saturday, July 18, 2020.

The exercise will afford eligible students who could not register in the EC’s two day-registration exercises for SHSs, the opportunity to do so.

The GES advised political parties who will be assigned to observe the process in various schools to refrain from engaging the students in “partisan politicking.”

The GES has also urged persons who will partake in the exercise to comply with the COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

The EC commenced a two-day registration at the premises of the various schools on July 10, 2020.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) subsequently filed a suit over the EC’s decision to embark on a voters’ registration exercise in schools.

Officials of the NDC had insisted that the exercise being embarked in the SHSs was illegal since the said schools had not been gazetted as centres being used for the national exercise.

The decision to commence registration in SHSs was communicated to political parties after an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Thursday, July 9, 2020.

The decision was made after some members of the public raised concerns about the exclusion of SHS students from the ongoing voter registration exercise.

It had been argued that with most of the students camped in their various schools, a rule for all students to remain within the school premises and no visitor entertained, eligible students may be disenfranchised.