Running mate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, has advised the Electoral Commission (EC) to make arrangement for the time lost on the Day One of its limited voters registration exercise.
She says the number of days allotted for the exercise were given for a reason, and areas where no single registration was made due to some challenges, should be granted an extension to make up for the lost period.
Her comments follow a statement from the EC indicating it encountered some challenges in some areas where people could not register at all.
Speaking with TV3’s Komla Klutse after a tour to some registration centres, including Legon Hall at the University of Ghana, UPSA and Madina District Office Wednesday, May 07, 2024, the running mate to John Dramani Mahama lauded the improvement in the exercise compared to the challenges encountered Tuesday, adding that the time lost should be catered for.
“Yesterday was chaotic as we all know. The machines weren’t working. Many places hadn’t started on time as was advertised and therefore today is much better and my hope is that it continues as it should.
“And in terms of yesterday, you know, I know they are machines and so on but one would not have expected that on such a large scale there will be consistent problems. So definitely if there were places as I heard, where not even a single person was registered or where very few people were registered because of challenges with the machines, then definitely the EC must make up for that time. If it’s an extra day, it should be restored,” she noted.
Meanwhile, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Adukwei Mensa, in a news conference Monday, May 06, 2024, disclosed her outfit’s plans for “unforeseen circumstances” should they arise in the course of the exercise.
“We are trying hard to, we’ve made arrangements to ensure that we don’t have challenges because of dumsor. What we’ve done is to have all our district offices rent generators so that in the event where there’s dumsor, that can kick in.
“However, should there be the unexpected, we would switch on to the offline and by offline it means the voters will be registered and their details will be put on a pen drive and that will be copied in our offices when the light returns, so the registration will not be disrupted,” she explained.
Meanwhile, the areas that experienced the challenges did not have access for the manual registration.
