367,931 Voters Went For ID Replacement

A total of 367,931 prospective voters reported that their identity cards were lost, defaced or damaged at the recent replacement exercise by the Electoral Commission (EC).

The 10-day exercise, which started from March 14, and ended on Sunday, March 23, 2008 took place at 5,000 replacement centres throughout the country.

It started at 7.00 a.m. and ended at 6.00 p.m. each day.  Giving the breakdown on regional basis, the Director of Public Affairs of the EC, Mr Christian Owusu-Parry, said Ashanti Region registered the highest number, 87,980, followed by Greater Accra with 59,410.

Others are Western, 40,895; Brong Ahafo, 39,018; Eastern, 36,782; Central, 33,431; Volta, 29,734; Northern, 19,593; Upper West, 11,433, and Upper East, 9,655.

It would be recalled that just after the exercise, the Director of Elections at the EC, Mr Albert Kofi Arhin, explained to the Daily Graphic that not many people patronised the replacement centres because they had not lost, defaced or destroyed their voters identity cards.

The EC deliberately opened the 5,000 replacement centres to afford as many people as possible access to EC offices and to avail themselves of the opportunity to have their lost ID cards replaced at these centres.

The exercise was also meant to ensure that people who had lost their identity cards did not undertake double registration on the pretext that they had lost their voters identity cards.

Due to the conflict in the Bawku area, however, the EC, in collaboration with the Bawku Municipal Security Committee (MUSEC), postponed the commission's programme in the Bawku Municipality.

Story by Donald Ato Dapatem