By Philip Tengzu, GNA
Wa (UW/R), Sept. 25, GNA – Dr Godfred Seidu Jasaw, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Wa East Constituency, has appealed to the Electoral Commission (EC) to create an additional registration centre in his constituency for the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.
That, he said, would address the accessibility challenges of the residents and enable the over 80 per cent of the population of the district to register for the voter’s identity cards.
“The choice of district capital for this registration is a huge constraint, so I would like to call on the Government and the EC to consider opening a new registration centre for the Wa East Constituency otherwise most eligible voters cannot get to the capital to register,” he said.
Dr Jasaw made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa after his journey to the EC office at the district capital to monitor the exercise, which was truncated by raging water between Yanyuoriyi and the Ambalara bridge in the constituency.
The MP said the present location of the district office was only accessible to the Sissala belt of the constituency while a chunk of the people were completely cut off by either filled rivers or deplorable roads leading to the district capital where the EC office was situated.
“The situation we find ourselves in is a big constraint to us in accessibility and also for the exercise of registering new voters.
The Wa East case is a unique one and the capital is in Funsi but accessing Funsi is a very difficult situation and the road to the place has been cut off by the rivers, so that is our challenge now,” the Wa East Lawmaker said.
Dr Jasaw said there was an urgent need for an additionally accessible registration centre so that no citizen would be disenfranchised due to the lack of proper road infrastructure.
“The poor road conditions in the constituency have significantly hindered citizens’ ability to access the registration centre, posing a major obstacle to their democratic rights.”
The MP said the deplorable condition of the roads to the district office not only affected the electoral process but also hampered the overall development of the constituency and the region as a whole.
It was worth noting that in their efforts to have access to the entire Wa East Constituency, the two major political parties in Ghana, the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress, had satellite offices at Bullenga, which was several kilometres away from Funsi, the district capital.
GNA