Biometric registration: 4.1 million registered, 600 duplicate registration uncovered

A total of 4.1 million people are said to have been registered in the first phase of the biometric registration exercise that ended Monday.

This was confirmed by the acting Director of Communications of the Electoral Commission, Christian Owusu Parry in an interview with Joy News.

According to him the Electoral Commission is estimating a little over 12 million people to be registered when the entire process comes to an end on May 5, 2012.

The exercise is in its second phase with reports of violence still pervading some of the polling stations across the country.

Parry said 600 duplicate registrations have been detected, adding that the anomaly cut across all parts of the country.

He said an adjudicating committee has been set up to look into the circumstances surrounding the multiple registrations and would advise the Commission on the next line of action.

He was however impressed with the progress of work in the second phase of the exercise which began Wednesday.

He said there have been no reports of breakdown of equipment as experienced in the first phase.

Meanwhile, the plan to register prisoners for the 2012 elections is experiencing some minor hitches and as a result delaying the process.

Courage Attim, Public Relations Officer of the Prisons Service told Joy News' Araba Koomson that most of the inmates do not have any form of identification which is a requirement for registration.

He said it is not enough to be physically present at the polling centre to be registered, insisting that prospective voters must be present at the registration centres with a form of identification before they will be considered.

He suspected some of them may even be using wrong names.

He said the inmates have therefore been informed to contact their families at home to provide some form of identification before the registration can be done.

Prisoners, per a Supreme Court ruling late last year, have been cleared to vote and therefore need to be registered in the ongoing biometric registration exercise.