NPP wants 10-day re-registration period extended

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti Region has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to extend the period of re-registration of persons whose names have been deleted from the voters’ register, because they got onto the electoral roll using the NHIS card ahead of the 2012 polls.

The EC has revealed that only 14,801 persons of the 56,000, whose names were deleted from the voters' register, have re-registered in the ongoing voters' register exhibition exercise.

The low turnout has been partly blamed on the supposed poor publicity of the re-registration exercise.

Addressing the press on Monday, the Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NPP, Sam Pyne, expressed fears that this would leave a significant number of people disenfranchised by the time the 10-day period is over.

He complained that “the EC never came out to give education on the time frame because when they announced that they were going to do the exhibition, they said 21 days.”

Mr. Pyne feels this has contributed to the low re-registration rate since the exercise commenced.

“A lot of people thought that even if you were going to re-register, it is going to be within the 21 days therefore a lot of people have slowed down in even going to do the registration, meanwhile they are doing it to for 10-days, and this is the eighth day.”

These are the concerns for which Mr. Pyne relayed the concern of the NPP saying “We as a political party are calling on the Electoral Commission to extend the registration period for the re-registration, so those affected can get their names back on the register.”

He also indicated that the party would be satisfied with the re-registration process running concurrently with the 21-day exhibition process.

Voter mistakenly deleted backs calls for extension

Also speaking on Eyewitness News on Tuesday, a Ghanaian citizen, who gave his name as Jefferson, narrated to Richard Sky, how his name was deleted although he did not register with an NHIS card.

Jefferson however narrated that, when he went to check his name, he was told that he wasn’t the only person whose name had been mistaken deleted.

According to him, he was however asked to go through a process to re-register, which he did and has been given a new  voters’ ID card. Jefferson however believes there may be many more people who may have suffered a similar fate, hence the need for an extension of the period for re-registration.

EC fears disenfranchisement
With the deadline for the end of the re-registration two days away, the Head of Communications at the EC, Eric Dzakpasu, has publicly expressed fears that most of the deleted registrants could be disenfranchised if the situation does not improve.

As at the close of work yesterday [Monday], out of the 56,762 names deleted, only 14,801 had re-registered,” Mr. Dzakpasu revealed.

He lamented that, “the people are not coming. We are expecting them to come in their numbers so that we can get most of them registered so that they can vote, but they are not coming as we expect them to come.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana