A million voters verified so far but turnout still low
Over one million registered voters have so far been verified by the biometric verification devices (BVDs) at all exhibition centres across the country, a press statement issued by the Electoral Commission (EC) has said.
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According to the EC, the figure was gathered at the end of the third day of the exercise, which stood at 1,003,812.
“Reports from all 29,000 centres across the country show that apart from the lower-than-expected response, the exercise is progressing smoothly,” it said.
The statement assured Ghanaians that the commission had deployed adequate personnel and equipment to ensure that all registered voters spent as little time as possible at the various centres to check their details and get their fingerprints verified.
“We encourage every registered voter who has not yet done so to take part in this all-important exercise in order to avoid polling-day inconvenience.
“We urge the political stakeholders to call on their supporters, sympathisers, friends and families to go out and get verified,” it said.
It further appealed to the media to use their platform to encourage potential voters to visit their polling stations and get verified.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Communications Director of the EC, Mr Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, said the numbers so far were not very encouraging.
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He said the figure recorded so far, when divided by the number of regions, would give an average of a little over 100 registrants per region.
He described it as too low and urged Ghanaians to go out in their numbers to verify their status.
Meanwhile, when the Daily Graphic visited some polling stations at Adabraka, indications were that people were trickling in, with some stations recording in excess of the national average.
At the A1 Polling Station, 173 people had verified their details over the four days as of 3:30 p.m., while 151 had checked their details at the Volta Lines Centre ‘B’, as against 115 at Centre ‘A’.
The St Joseph Roman Catholic Basic School Centre had verified 140, while the Nayak Centre had recorded 119, with the Additrom Centre having verified 91 registrants.
From Sunyani, Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah reports that people are still trickling in to verify their names four days into the EC's voter exhibition exercise.
On the first day of the exercise, 47 people checked their names; 52 on the second day; 30 on the third day and 15 as of the time of the visit yesterday.
At the Rural Development Store 'B' Centre, also at the Victoria Park, 177 people out of the 945 on the list had verified their names as of the time of the visit.
Daniel Kenu reports from Kumasi that the EC office in Kumasi has been rocked with erratic power supply and slow Internet connectivity, leading to long queues, intermittent yelling by potential voters and commotion.
Arguably, Kumasi is experiencing the worst form of erratic power supply in recent times, which is affecting the 21-day voter exhibition and the re-registration of those whose names have been deleted from the voters register.
The EC office, which is currently housing the Subin, Bantama, Asokwa and Manhyia sub-metros, has been inundated with huge numbers of people, with its associated problems.
Emmanuel Baah also reports from Kumasi that at the Esereso West (Chief’s palace) Centre, the number of voters is 786 and since the start of the exercise 209 has verified their names.
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At the Esereso D/A Primary East Centre, 165 had verified out of 684, while at the Zion JHS ‘A’ (Asafo) Centre, 193 had so far verified, out of 805.
Meanwhile, Caroline Boateng reports that 11,000 security personnel, made up of 5,000 police reserves and 6,000 reserve military officials, are to be deployed before, during and after the elections.
This was disclosed by the Director of Operations of the Ghana Police Service, Chief Supt Dr Benjamin Agordzo, at a lecture on Reflections on Security Series organised by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre (KAIPTC) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) in Accra yesterday.
The Reflections on Security Series is the second of such lectures by the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research (FAAR) of the KAIPTC.
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The topic for the lecture was: “Preparedness of security agencies for Election 2016.”
Chief Supt Dr Agordzo also outlined the four-tier approach in election operations and deployment plans, which included deployments at polling stations, the zoning of polling stations for mobile patrols, rapid reaction forces equipped with special skills and equipment to respond to “volatile public order situations or emergencies” and police reserve units stationed at strategic locations at the national, regional and district headquarters of the service.