By Issah Mohammed, Jibril Abdul Mumuni
Accra, Sept 12, GNA – Undue delay on the first day of the limited voter registration exercise at the Electoral Commission’s (EC) Ga South District Office is making some new voters skeptical about the process.
Potential applicants, some of whom said they reached the exercise venue as early as 0600 hours expressed disappointment with technical challenges that delayed the issuance of Voters’ Identity Cards.
The exercise was hampered by a downpour that started at 1300 hours and lasted 30 minutes, stopping the process.
Two canopies mounted in front of the district office could not provide enough cover from the rain as participants had to seek shelter in surrounding buildings.
Registration resumed at about 14 hours and was scheduled to end at 17 hours.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mrs Zainab Haruna, a resident of Bortianor bemoaned the distance between her house and the district office of the EC.
“We are coming from far places, and we have been asked to converge here to register. We are facing a lot of challenges and if they had conducted the exercise at the polling station, we would not struggle to pay this much on transportation just to register.
“Even with the polling stations, we struggle to afford transportation to register there, and we have been asked to come here and register,” she said.
Ms Mary Offei, a resident of Obum, expressed her displeasure with the muddy appearance of the registration centre after the downpour.
Mr Zurkaina Amidu, an Amanfrom resident, also expressed concern about the involvement of party officials in the process.
Their involvement, he stated, was frustrating the process because it hindered the fluid movement of the queue.
He urged the EC to immediately address all the technical glitches hindering the process.
Mr Kwabena Apea Ayeh, District Election Officer, Ga South, told the GNA that the technical challenge was a network glitch that was hampering online registration.
“We don’t want to do offline registration because we have not been authorised to do so,” he said.
Based on the development, he indicated that they are working to register a quarter of their daily target of 200 applicants at the close of the day.
He observed that registering new voters with the Ghana Card was faster than the guarantor system and therefore urged the youth and other new voters to try and go for their Ghana cards.
GNA