The Deputy Commissioner of the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana, Dr Eric Bossman Asare briefed journalists on the ongoing limited voter registration exercise on Monday May 13, 2024
The exercise, which started on May 7, will end on May 27, 2024.
Please read his full speech below:
LET THE CITIZEN KNOW
UPDATES ON THE 2024 VOTERS REGISTRATION EXERCISE
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the Media. The Electoral Commission
(EC) expresses its appreciation to the Almighty God for His grace and mercies,
and for the gift of life which has made it possible for the Commission to be able to
undertake its activities.
We also thank you the Media personnel and your organizations for always
supporting the Commission to send its messages across to the people of this
country and beyond. The Commission is also pleased with the work of our officials
both permanent and temporary in the regions and the districts who implement the
decisions of the Commission.
As a leading Election Management Body in sub-Saharan Africa and certainly
beyond because of our many years of meeting global benchmarks in elections
management, we are committed to always ensuring that our processes promote the
collective good of the country’s democracy. Indeed, our motto – Transparency,
Fairness and Integrity-has been guiding all the activities we undertake including
matters that have indirect bearing on elections such as in procurement and
auctioning of obsolete items.
The 2024 Voters Registration Exercise began on Tuesday, the 7th of May at all the
268 District Offices of the Commission, selected Electoral Areas and some Public
Universities.
The Commission again regrets the technical challenges that registrants encountered
in the first two days of the Registration Exercise. As a Commission we did what
we had to do by putting measures in place to ensure a smooth registration
experience for our compatriots who have just turned 18 since the last registration
exercise and those who for one reason or the other have not been able to register as
Voters.
We wish to use this opportunity to tell the political parties and Ghanaians in general that the technical challenges we had have been resolved, and the Commission believes anyone who wants to register as a voter should be able to do so in his/her district.
The Commission welcomes constructive criticisms from the political parties and Civil Society Organizations that will go long way to strengthen its work.
Offline Registration
Following the reports that came to the attention of the Commission on the second
day of the registration exercise, we took the decision to direct our staff to switch to
the Offline Registration mode to ensure all applicants in the queues get the
opportunity to register.
As a Commission we prefer the Online Registration to the Offline version because
the Online system ensures that those who have registered as voters do not get the
chance to register again. The Online system prevents double registration. However,
with the Offline Registration, because the data is transferred after the registration
you can have instances where registered voters go to registration centers to register
again. At times, too, because people have lost their voter cards or they have
forgotten where they registered as voters or have relocated they try to register
again. In these instances our system will later identify their registrations as double
thus making them ineligible to vote in the elections.
We want to use this Let The Citizen Know platform to urge all those who
registered either in the 2020 Mass Registration Exercise or the 2023 Limited
Registration Exercise not to attempt to register again as voters. Such persons will
not be able to vote in the 2024 General Elections.
Discrimination
The Commission has no intention of favoring any particular regions, constituencies
or zones in this Registration Exercise. All such commentaries implying that the
Commission has sent bad equipment to certain parts of the country or frustrating
the registration exercise in some regions or constituencies, are championed by
persons who are completely ignorant of the processes of the Electoral Commission
or are by persons who deliberately want to undermine the reputation and the
recognition the EC enjoys in the eyes of those who understand our processes.
The Commission understands that the right to register as a voter is a fundamental
political right that must be protected for all Ghanaians who are at least 18 years old
and meet the requirements for registration. Consequently, it’s unfortunate that
some will accuse the Commission of discriminating against a section of Ghanaians
in the registration exercise.
We wish to use this medium to again assure all Ghanaians that the Commission is
committed to ensuring that all qualified persons get onto the Voters Register and
vote in the December 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections. It is in our
interest to do so and we take pride in the high percentage of the population who are
registered voters.
Minors and Non-Ghanaians
We continue to receive reports that minors and non-Ghanaians are being
encouraged by certain persons who are members of political parties to register as
voters. The Commission has seen a report from the Western Region specifically in
Mpohor where some two persons who allegedly facilitated the registration of five
minors have been apprehended by the Police. We wish to use this opportunity to
urge parents especially to dissuade their children who are less than 18 years from
registering as voters.
Similarly, we beseech the national leadership of the political parties to discourage
their executives in the regions and the constituencies from transporting minors and
foreigners to the registration centers. The objective of the Commission as always
has been to have a credible register for the 2024 elections.
We believe the political parties, as the main stakeholders in the general elections, must be dedicated to supporting a credible register as well. Consequently, we find attempts by parties to support the registration of minors and foreigners as completely unacceptable and aimed at undermining the country’s electoral democracy. We urge the Police to apply the laws on those who have been apprehended to serve as a deterrent to others in the enterprise of facilitating the registration of minors and foreigners.
We want to urge the children who are not 18 years that it is against the law for them to register as voters. Children, don’t allow anyone to tell you to go and register and vote in the December 2024 elections if you are not 18 years.
We have noticed the disturbances occurring at some of the registration centers is
due to the fact that some people are doubting ages of some of the applicants. This
is the reason why the Commission has been advocating for the usage of the Ghana
Card which has the date of birth and the nationality of the bearers of the Card, and
the abolition of the Guarantor system. We are hopeful that in the next registration
exercise applicants will use their Ghana Card as the means of identification.
Let me use this medium to remind the Agents of the Political Parties and the
General Public that the Challenge system embedded in the registration exercise
allows the Agents and those who qualify to register as voters to challenge
applicants who they believe are not qualified to register as voters.
Regional Breakdown of the Registration
At the end of Day Six of the Registration Exercise, the following are the figures for
each region:
Females and Males Registration
A pattern that has become a regular feature of this registration exercise in the first
six days is that nationally more females are registering than males. Of the 251,149
registered voters females constitute 135,898 which is 54.11% and males are
115,251 which is 45.89%.
First Time Voters
First time Voters (those between the ages of 18 and 21) constitute the majority of
registered voters in all the 16 regions. Nationally, they represent 88.02% (that is
221,066) of the total number of registered voters so far.
Persons with Disabilities
At the end of Day Six we have registered 382 persons with disabilities. These are the regional distribution of the registration of PWDs:
Forms of Identification
The Guarantor system continues to dominate the forms of identification used in the
2024 Registration Exercise as in the 2023 Exercise. This is something the
Commission is not proud of because it is used by political parties and certain
persons to facilitate the registration of unqualified persons such as minors and
foreigners. The current confusion at some of the registration centers is attributable
to the Guarantor system.
The table below shows the total figures and the percentages of the forms of
identification for the first five days of the Registration Exercise.
Ghana Card 98,926 – 39.39%
Passport 622 – 0.25%
Guarantors 151,601 – 60.36%
Challenged Cases
The challenged cases for the first six days of the exercise appear to be evenly
distributed although the numbers are high in some regions and low as well in other
regions. In nominal terms the Greater Accra region has the highest with 524, and
the North East has the lowest with 9.
As a percentage of the total registered in each
region the Volta region has the highest with 4.29% and the North East has 0.13%
being the lowest. The following are the challenged cases in each region.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Commission wishes to thank the media for their regular updates
on the registration exercise. We know some of the media houses have focused on
only the challenges but a number of you have been highlighting the success of the
exercise. We plead with you to use your platforms to speak against the attempts by
political parties and certain individuals to register minors and non-Ghanaians.
May the Good Lord continue to bless this country and its people in great ways.
