EC accuses parties of busing registrants to centres

The Electoral Commission is accusing political parties of busing people to the various district offices across the country to have them registered under the continuous voter's registration process.

The Commission is seeking to extend the deadline to tomorrow or Sunday to have prospective voters finally registered for the elections 2016.

Hundreds have besieged the various district offices of the Electoral Commission in a desperate attempt to register before the deadline later Friday.

That has caused some chaos at some of the registration centres Joy News can report.

The Commission gave a two-day window of opportunity- August 19 and 26, 2016, to have prospective voters registered for the last time before the 2016 elections in December.

However with hours to go on August 26, hundreds still queue at the various District Offices of the EC waiting for their turn to register.

Reports say the registrants have been left frustrated and agitated.

"We were unable to register during the limited registration exercise. This time too i don't if we will get the opportunity to register because the population here is quite huge.

"Once we are here we want to exercise our franchise," one of the frustrated registrants at the EC office in Accra said.

The situation was no different at the Northern Region where Martina Bugri reported of shortage of forms for proxy voters.

In the Ashanti Region, the situation was worse. Erastus Asare Donkor said there were over 500 people still in a queue at about 5:30pm Friday August 26 which is the final day for the continuous registration process.

There was some chaos and the police had a tough time maintaining order.

He reported the registrants have been assured by the Regional EC Director that the registration process has been extended to Sunday in order for all persons in the queue to register.

However the Deputy Director of Communications of the Electoral Commission Yssif Ayuba told Joy News he cannot confirm that the EC has extended the continuous registration exercise to Sunday.

He however confirmed that the process has been extended to Saturday 8:00 pm.

Ayuba however chastised the political parties for making life difficult for the Electoral Commission by busing the registrants to the place.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah