Exhibition of Voters' Register in Bolgatanga exposes some flaws

Bolgatanga, Oct. 14, GNA - Rounds conducted by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the exhibition of the Voters' Register in the Bolgatanga Municipality have revealed that 34 people in the Municipality, who registered their personal data during the Voters' Registration exercise and had identity cards to show for it could not find their names in the Provisional Voters' Register.

Pictures of two of the affected persons were swapped at one exhibition centre, while minor mistakes in the spelling of names at most centres had to be corrected.

At the 11 exhibition centres visited by the GNA on Thursday, records showed a low turn out right from the commencement of the exercise three days ago.

At the Mount Sinai Primary/JSS Centre, where a total of 439 people were registered, 35 persons had so far checked their names. At the Zamstech 'A' and 'B' centres with 700 and 485 registered persons respectively, only 45 had checked their registration at 'A' while 75 had checked at centre 'B' as at 1100 hours.

Out of a total number of 1,364 registered voters at Experimental Primary A and B, 135 persons had checked their registration while at Nawongo 'B' 125 persons had checked their names out of a total of 539 registered voters.

At three centres, the Local Council 'A', Bolgatanga Nursery 'A' and 'B', 87 persons had checked their registrations out of a total of 984 registered voters.

At the Frafra Traditional Council Centre 'B' with 378 registered voters, 86 persons had checked while 55 out of 633 also checked their registration at Plaza Centre. Out of 787 registered persons 243 had checked their personal data at the Methodist Primary Centre by 12:00 noon.

Some Exhibition Officers and members of the public attributed the low turn out to poor publicity, saying some passers by did not know what was happening and had to be told before they went to check on their registration.

Others reasons given were that some of the residents were busy on their farms harvesting, while others thought there was no need to waste their time on the registration process as the politicians had failed them over the years.

All persons who could not find their names in the registers were given forms to fill for the anomaly to be rectified.

At the Christ the King Exhibition Centre Number CO80521 in Accra, Mr Frederick Lomo, Exhibition Officer, told the GNA that 145 voters out of the 1,204 on Voter's Register had checked their particulars by 1500 hours on Thursday.

He said 25 checked their names on Tuesday; 50 on Wednesday and 70 had done so on Thursday at 1500 hours when the GNA visited. Mr Lomo said the pictures of two voters could not found in Voter's Register even though, they had their Identity Cards with their photographs. He said he gave the two the relevant forms to fill and asked them to listen to an announcement that would direct them to where they could go and get their photographs taken.