The third phase of the biometric registration exercise began throughout the country yesterday devoid of the technical problems, anxiety and long queues that were associated with the first and second phases of the exercise.
The exercise, which began slowly in the morning because most people were going to church, picked up in the afternoon after church services, particularly at registration centres in Accra.
At some of the centres in Accra, the long queues and pressure seen in the first phase of the exercise were generally gone.
Also, there were virtually no hitches such as malfunctioning equipment, which were associated with the first and second phases.
At the Odorgonno Daycare Centre One, the Registration Officer, Mr Francis Donkor, told the Daily Graphic that the exercise began slowly in the morning but picked up when people returned from church.
As of 2.35 p.m., he said, 56 people had registered.
“We have not encountered any problem so far. The exercise is very smooth and we are expecting more people to come and register,” he said.
Representatives of the New Patric Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Clifford Boateng and Mr Evans Commodore respectively, said they were happy with the registration process.
At the Congregation of God’s Church, near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, registration officers were sitting idly at the time the Graphic visited there.
According to a registration officer, Mr Dickson Danquah, there was a short queue in the morning when the exercise started.
As of 2.45 p.m., he said, 44 people had registered, and that few people were still coming in to register.
Prospective voters were busily registering when the Graphic team arrived at the Midway Nursery School registration centre at Asylum
Down.
Emma Tandoh, the registration officer there, said “since we started in the morning we have not had any problem”.
She said there was no pressure or anxiety as was the case in the first round.
Representatives of the NDC and NPP expressed their delight at the pace of the registration exercise.
They said they were happy with the process, and expected more people to register as the days went by.
From Koforidua, Nana Konadu Agyeman reports that the start of the third phase of the registration at various registration stations in the New Juaben municipality had been encouraging and smooth.
At the Daasebre Estate polling station, where the exercise started at about 8 a.m, 78 persons had been registered as of 3:40 p.m.
A short queue was seen at the station when the Daily Graphic visited the area, where the registration officer, Ms Agnes Kumi, described the registration process as calm and encouraging.
At the Methodist Boys School polling station at Betom, a suburb of Koforidua, 118 persons had registered as of 4 p.m. but the registration officer, Mr Eric Ayittey, expressed worry over alleged interruption from some party agents at the station.
The exercise took off in the Ho municipality without the long queues which characterised first and second phases, writes Victor Kwawukume.
Registration officers told the Daily Graphic at 12:30 p.m. that the low patronage might be due to people having gone to church and that they were expecting the exercise to pick up later in the day.
Generally, the exercise went on peacefully with the equipment at most places functioning well.
However, at the Ho Bankoe Roman Catholic Primary School, the registration officer, Mr Moses Gemeh, said that the printer could not
function well.
He explained that at certain points the print command failed and they had to put off and restart the machine.
He said patronage was encouraging and that as of 1:30 p.m., they had registered 38 persons.
At the Lord’s Pentecostal Centre at Ahoe, a registration official, Mr Emmanuel Mereku, said they had registered 18 people as at 1p.m. but expressed the hope that the exercise would pick up later in the day.
Unlike the first and second phases of the exercise which recorded some technical hitches and delays in the Brong Ahafo Region, resulting in long queues, the third phase of the on-going exercise took off smoothly, reports Samuel Duodu, Sunyani.
The Banda Ahenkro Roman Catholic Junior High School (JHS) registration centre in the Tain Constituency did not record any technical hitches and long queues.
According to the registration officer there, Mr James Anane, everything was moving on smoothly and the long queues that were experienced in the first phase were conspicuously missing.
At the Sunyani Victoria Park registration centre, the exercise went on smoothly.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Director of the EC, Mr George Gyabaah, in an interview, said over 300,000 people registered during the first phase of the exercise.
He said the first day of the third phase of the exercise took off smoothly and so far no incident had been recorded.
From Cape Coast, Shirley Asiedu-Addo reports that the third phase of the biometric registration exercise began smoothly in Cape Coast.
Voters were seen registering at the various registration centres the Daily Graphic visited.
There were a few queues at the various centres visited.
About 12 p.m. few people had registered at the Siwdu Methodist registration centre.
The Metropolitan Electoral Officer for Cape Coast, Mr Anthony Nyame, said the commission had rectified problems with the machines, adding that now all the 40 centres for the third phase were working smoothly.
He said a total of 114,000 voters were expected to be registered in the metropolis during the four phases and expressed optimism that the exercise would continue smoothly.
Chris Nunoo, reports from Wa, the Upper West regional capital, that provisional data made available to the Daily Graphic by the regional office of the Electoral Commission (EC) indicated that the region recorded 121, 855 registered voters in the first phase of the exercise while 95, 201 voters registered in the second phase.
The national biometric voters registration exercise took off on Saturday, March 24, 2012, to issue new voters identification cards to Ghanaians.
The exercise commenced amid some technical challenges which slowed down the process at some registration centres.
Malfunctioning printers and laptops and the inability of thumbprint machines to connect to the computers were some of the challenges which occurred during the exercise at some centres.
Ineffective communication of the schedules for the registration exercise added to the frustration of some applicants who visited registration centres which were not part of the first phase of the exercise slated for March 24 to April 2.
The second phase of the exercise began from April 4 to 13. The third phase, which began on April 15, will end on April 24, while the last phase begins from April 26 to May 5.
The Electoral Commission (EC) distributed 7,000 standby power generators to various constituencies to ensure a smooth biometric registration exercise.
The generators were procured in view of the recent nationwide intermittent power outages and the lack of electricity in certain parts of the country.
Each generator has the capacity of 800VA or 0.8 KVA and uses fuel. Additionally, two Li-Ion dry cell rechargeable batteries which can last eight hours have been attached to the laptops being used for the exercise.
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