Voter registration exercise extended to May 29

The Electoral Commission (EC) has extended the ongoing voter registration exercise by two more days.

The exercise, which started on May 7 and was expected to end on May 27, will now end on Wednesday, May 29.

A statement issued by the Commission on Friday, explained that the extension of the registration date was to make up for the network failure that affected the smooth start of the exercise on the first two days.

“The Commission’s aim is to ensure that all eligible voters who wish to register are afforded the opportunity to do so,” the EC said.

The EC urged all eligible citizens who were yet to register to visit the Commission’s registration centres in districts where they resided to register to enable them to vote on December 7.

The limited voter registration exercise started across the country on May 7, with a target to register 623,000 eligible persons onto the electoral register.

 The 21-day exercise is meant for persons who have turned 18 and others who have not previously registered to vote.

The voter registration exercise is being carried out in 1,053 registration centres, made up of 268 district offices of the Electoral Commission (EC) and 785 additional centres in hard-to-reach areas agreed on with political parties.

The Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, had given a firm assurance that the commission would register all eligible persons who would turn up at the centres to be registered, even if the number rose above the targeted 623,000 persons.

As of May 19, the EC revealed that it had registered 522,025 voters, with eight clear days to the end of the exercise. 

The Ashanti Region topped the regional table with 90,480 registered voters, making up 17.3 per cent of the national figure, while the Greater Accra Region placed second with 74,420 persons, representing 14.3 per cent.

In terms of gender distribution, out of the total registered voters, 246,455 were male (47.21 per cent), and 275,570 were female (52.79 per cent).

Timelines

An earlier programme of activities for the 2024 general election released by the EC last March stated that after the registration exercise, it would proceed to also conduct a nationwide exercise to replace missing voter ID cards from May 30. 

The EC intends to submit the provisional voter register to the political parties between July 9 and 18, 2024, and mount an exhibition of the voter register between July 15 and 24, 2024.

The final voter register is expected to be submitted to the political parties between August 30 and September 5, 2024.