Voter Registration: If EC Continue Like This Then We're In For Disaster — Otokunor

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the technical challenges observed on the first day of the new voters' registration exercise amid widespread disregard for covid-19 protocols shows that the Electoral Commission (EC) is not prepared for the exercise.

According to the party, the total disregard for the COVID-19 precautionary measures during the process was also very worrying.

A Deputy General Secretary of NDC, Peter Boamah Otokunor said the country might record high numbers of COVID-19 cases if the current situation persists.

“In most of the places, the machines malfunctioned and a lot of people were not able to register. In some places, the ID cards that were printed had no ID numbers. The scariest and the dreaded is the complete disregard for the public health protocols. You could see how people had massed up without caution and without the necessary preventive measures. Per what we have seen today, if we continue like that then we are in for a disaster,” he said.

The first day of the voter registration exercise ongoing nationwide was marked by the anticipated concerns of faulty machines, long queues and a lack of social distancing amidst the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Across Ghana's 16 regions, there are 6,788 clusters made up of five registration centres each.

Some of these centres like the City Engineers registration centre at the Ashiedu Keteke District in Accra saw hundreds of persons stranded because of the late start of the process.

Finishing the process as early as possible was the goal of a lot of registrants who showed up at registration centres the night before, in some cases, to begin queueing.

In some areas, people had used stones to book their place in anticipated queues.

---citinewsroom