Richard Baah Amoako, a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has condemned the Electoral Commission (EC) for choosing to do the re-exhibition of the voters’ register online.
The political scientist says a lot of the population the Commission is dealing with are illiterate and choosing the online medium for the re-exhibition is not the best.
Speaking on the BigIssue on TV3’s NewDay Tuesday, October 15, 2024, the former Head of the Political Science department of the KNUST said the best the EC could have done would be to put the list on the newspaper for persons who cannot read to get others check their names for them.
He accused the EC boss of deliberately choosing the online medium to inconvenience many who do not use the internet.
“It looks as if she is purposefully being dumb. Should I tell her that, how many Ghanaians can access the internet before she knows? This is unacceptable. The least she could do is to get it in the newspaper.
“The person who doesn’t read can buy the paper, give it to someone, my child or whatever, friend, go through that and see if my name is in. That’s a lot better than saying you’re going online. Don’t you know the people you’re organising the election for? How many are educated like that? So it’s not acceptable at all,” he condemned.
The Electoral Commission (EC) will from today, October 15, conduct its online re-exhibition of the Provisional Voters Register (PVR) and will end on Saturday, October 19, 2024.
During the five-day re-exhibition period, voters can check their details via the short code *711*51# free of charge or visit the EC’s website: https://ec.gov.gh.
“Voters should click on the pop-up link at the bottom-right corner of the screen and enter the 10-digit Voter ID number to receive their voter registration details,” it said in a statement signed by its Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey.
At its special IPAC meeting held on October 1, 2024, the EC assured the public that the revised PVR would be re-exhibited online for registered voters to check their details and report any discrepancies to the Commission for correction.
It asked that any discrepancies identified must be reported to the district office of the Commission where they were registered voters for correction.
It said once the Re-Exhibition Exercise ends on Saturday, October 19, 2024, voters would still be able to check their details online but would not be able to request correction on their details.
“Political parties are required to use the template provided by the commission to submit any discrepancies identified during the re-exhibition period,” it said.
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