Prisoners Register To Vote In Election 2012

A number of prisoners were Tuesday registered by the Electoral Commission (EC) for them to exercise their franchise in the December general election.

Weeks after putting the prisoners in the limbo over whether to register them or not, the exercise took place in all 43 prisons throughout the country.

Before the exercise, the Ghana Prisons Service had set up a task force to screen and verify the identification of all inmates since most of them used fake forms of identity in the prisons.

Although described as highly successful by officials of the EC, turn out at the various prisons was far less than the country’s prison population which is a little over 13,000.

At the Nsawam Prison for instance which has 3,409 male and 117 female-prisoner population, only 18 males and 11 females had registered as at 1.30 pm.

The idea to allow prisoners to vote in Election 2012, came after years of national debates by human rights campaigners.

The Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling in May, 2010, declared null and void Section 7(5) of PNDCL 285 which imposes a residency requirement on prisoners as a condition for voting, thereby giving the nod to convicted and remand prisoners in the country’s jails to vote.

The court directed the EC to come up with a Constitutional Instrument (CI) to create the legal framework that would ensure the inclusion of prisoners in the voters register for the next general election.

Apart from EC officials and political party representatives, the excercise in the various prisons had restricted media presence at the various prisons because of security concerns but briefing graphic.co.gh, a Commissioner of the EC, Ms Rebecca Kabukie Adjalo said the exercise had been very orderly and smooth.

“We are happy about how the whole exercise is going. The registration officials know the process so there was no form of time wasting. It has really worked.”

“This is a novelty and our first experience. At the end of the today, we’ll be able to plan for the future. If we are not able to register all the prisoners today, we’ll make time and register them.”

ASP Courage Atsem, Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service discredited media reports that there was discrimination in the prisons as to which prisoners to register.

He said the prisons service had done all it could to ensure that all prisoners who could provide the required form of registration were allowed to register.

Just before the commencement of the biometric registration exercise, the EC Chairman, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, announced that based on the Supreme Court ruling and beyond.

But the move nearly hit a snag because of the inability of the inmates to readily produce a form of national identity prescribed by the EC, which include a driving licence, a passport or a national.identification card.

It is also reported that most of the inmates are using nicknames on official prison records, hence the difficulty in ascertaining their true identities to ensure the smooth take-off of the exercise.

0ut of the 1,286 prisoners in five prisons in the Western Region, only 26 are qualified to register and vote in the December election,

The process which commenced at about 7 am lasted less than an hour and officials of the EC had to pack out of the Ekoase, Sekondi Main/Female, Hiawa and Tarkwa prisons.

According to the Regional Director of the EC, Mr Steven Opoku Mensah, the exercise started on schedule.

Giving a break down of registered prisoners, he said at Ekoase out of the 131 inmates, only four qualified to register and vote. In the Sekondi Main Prison, the total number of inmates were 742 and only five registered.

At the female prison also in Sekondi, none of the 26 female qualified to register to vote and at Hiawa Prisons in the Wassa Amenfi West District, out of the 116 prisoners only five qualified to register.

In the Tarkwa Prison, out of the 271 prisoners in the lock up, only 11 prisoners who qualified to vote were registered.

From Ho, Tim Dzamboe reports that the biometric registration exercise for prisoners in the Volta Region ended with only two out of a total of 878 inmates in the three prisons at Ho-Central, Kpando and Kete-Krachi qualified to register.

The qualified persons came from the Ho-Central prisons with none qualified from the other prisons.

According to the Deputy Director of Ghana Prisons Service, Mrs Emma Dilys Sawyerr-Laryea, “it took just 15 minutes to do the registration of the two persons.”

Biometric registration of prisoners took place at three prison centres in the Central region without any hitch reports Joe Okyere in Cape Coast.

Speaking to the press after supervising the exercise at the Ankaful Main Prisons, the Central Regional Director of the Electoral Commssion, Ms. Philomena Edusei said 11 prisoners had been registered at the Ankaful Main Prisons when she and her deputy, Mr. Serebour Quaicoe called at the centre.

Ms. Edusei said while 12 prisoners were qualified to register at the Ankaful Annex, three others also qualified to register at the Awutu Camp with another nine prospecctive voters at the Winneba Prisons.

For his part Mr. Serebour Quaicoe said there was a case a prisoner who had been admitted into the Ankaful Main Prisons on three occasions had used three different names.

THE biometric voters’ registration of prisoners went through successfully in the Ashanti Region but only 60 out of the total number of 2,377 inmates in the four prisons were covered reports Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi

At the Kumasi Central Prisons, the biggest in the region, only 12 of the 1,790 inmates were registered while at the Manhyia Prisons, 22 out of the 263 prisoners qualified and voluntarily presented themselves to be registered.

The Regional Director of the EC, Mr Samuel Tettey, told the Daily Graphic that 23 out of the 192 prisoners in Obuasi Prisons also presented themselves for registration while that of the Ahinsan Camp at Fomena was three out of the 132 inmates.

Apart from accredited EC officials and political party agents, no other persons were allowed into the prisons yard to observe the registration.

James K. Baah in Sunyani reports that qualified inmates at the Sunyani Prison were not left out of the excercise.The Deputy Director of Prisons in charge of Brong-Ahafo, Ali Dery disclosed that only 12 out of the 801inmates qualified to be registered under the exercise. Out of the 12 who were registered eight were males and four females.

Thirty prisoners in the Northern Region registered in the biometric voters’ registration exercise, reports Vincent Amenuveve, Tamale.

The Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr. Sylvester Kanyi who made this known to the Daily Graphic in Tamale stated that at the Tamale Prisons, 28 eligible voters were registered while at the Yendi Prisons there were none. According to him, the officials of the EC registered only two prisoners at both the Salaga and Gambaga prisons.

From Koforidua, A. Kofoya-Tetteh reports that only 19 prisoners registered at the Koforidua and the Forifori prisons in the Kwahu North District (Afram Plains) as at 5 p.m. While 18 of them registered at the Koforidua Prisons, the remaining prisoner had it done at the Forifori Prisons.

According to the Deputy Eastern Regional Director of the (EC, Mr Eric Mensah-Bonsu, the low turn-out could be attributed to the Constitutional Instrument 72 which stipulates that prisoners must produce a passport, a national identification card, a voter’s card or a health insurance card with two guarantors.

He said it had also been detected that many prisoners were using fake names to hide their identity hence their inability to go through the process.