CDD-Ghana Urges EC To Address Challenges Associated With Ongoing Voter's Registration Exercise

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CDD-Ghana Urges EC To Address Challenges Associated With Ongoing Voter's Registration Exercise

The Programmes Coordinator at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Nana K. Aborampah Mensah has charged the Electoral Commission (EC) to as a matter of urgency address the challenges associated with the ongoing Voters’ Registration Exercise to enable all eligible voters to register and vote in the December general elections.

According to him, per the CODEO’s Registration Observers Report, the ongoing registration exercise had been described as generally peaceful but not without some challenges.

Speaking at the Ghana Speaks Virtual Public Forum held at Coconut Grove Regency Hotel in Accra Wednesday, Nana Aborampah Mensah said the exercise had so far witnessed some shortages of registration materials at some centres, breakdown of Biometric Verification Machines, security challenges, late arrival of registration officials and unfriendly environment for persons with disability, pregnant women and the aged, and party agents physically attacking or challenging suspected foreigners or ineligible voters among others.

The forum which was organized by the Centre for Social Democracy in partnership with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung-Ghana, was under the theme: “Election 202: Protecting Citizens’ Right To Vote”.

The Programme Coordinator of CDD-Ghana was confident that many more people would be encouraged to register and vote in the upcoming elections if those few challenges are addressed. He said that the EC should ensure that the peacefulness and security of the exercise was prioritized to cover the materials involved, the temporary staff and eligible voters especial the vulnerable groups.

Nana Aborampah Mensah on the other hand said CODEO’s report indicated that some centre (5%) were not friendly for the aged, PWDs and pregnant women as they all had to struggle in long queues to get registered.

On the measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 during the registration, he said the report indicated that over 91% of the registration centres had put in place appropriate measures for the observation of the protocols. But enforcement of the protocols such as social distancing and sanitization of the Biometric Verification Machine after taking of every individual finger print were not in place.

Nana Aborampah indicated that the Electoral Commission has the greatest opportunity to use the ongoing registration exercise to win back the trust and confidence of all the political parties and other stakeholders [the CSOs] that had expressed doubts about its neutrality and fairness in the run up to the exercise.

Other speakers including Mr. Justice Srem Sai, Legal Practitioner and Law Lecturer at GIMPA and Nana Oye Lithur, Legal Practitioner and former Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection condemned the deployment of armed military personnel to the Volta Region ahead of the voters’ registration exercise.

According to Justice Srem Sai, the deployment was a mischief or deliberate attempt by the government to disenfranchise people in the region, and described it as a sign of undemocratic and bad governance.

Nana Oye Lithur on her part, condemned the incidences of violence against NDC at the various registration centres in their [NDC] strongholds. She alleged how the EC had at some point created artificial shortage of registration materials, breakdown of registration machines and late arrival of materials and officials at some regions such as Volta, Oti and the Northern Regions where NDC are dominant.

The former Gender Minister however called for maximum protection and friendly environment for PWDs, aged and pregnant women at the centres. She also called on the EC to ensure full disclosure of data on the number of women, PWDs, the aged and other vulnerable groups to enhance the credibility of the exercise.

Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission is leading the processes for Ghana to compile a new voter’s register for the conduct of the December 2020 general elections and beyond. The registration exercise which commenced on 30th June, 2020 is expected to end on August 6th, 2020 across the 275 constituencies in Ghana.