Wa, July 01, GNA – The ongoing voter registration exercise, by the Electoral Commission (EC) across all 120 registration centres in the Upper West Region has so far been smooth.
Out of these 120 registration centres, Wa Municipality has 19, Wa East 12, Wa West 14, Nadowli-Kaleo 11, Daffiama-Buissie-Issa seven, Sissala West eight, Jirapa 14, Lambussie eight, and nine each for Lawra, Sissala East and Nandom Municipalities.
The exercise, which is to compile new voters register ahead of the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in December, is being carried out under strict COVID-19 safety protocols.
Mr Ali Osman, the Upper West Regional Director of the Commission urged the public to turn out in their numbers to register but added that they should endeavour to leave the registration centre as quickly as possible to avoid a possible breach of the social distancing protocol.
He urged the public to report all complaints to registration officers for immediate resolve and desist from taking the law into their own hands.
He allayed the fears of those who have not yet gotten their Ghana card not to entertain any fears as they could still register by letting someone who had already registered to guarantee for them to also register.
Meanwhile, the Regional Election Security Task Force, led by its Chairman, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP), Mr Francis Aboagye Nyarko, the Upper West Regional Police Commander were met by the GNA at the High Court Office/Nayiri Registration Centre in Wa Municipality.
Mr Nyarko told the GNA that they were visiting a few of the centres to ensure everything was going on smoothly in terms of security and the observance of the social distancing protocols.
He described the process as smooth except that people were still having difficulties in keeping to the social distancing protocol, and that they would continue to educate the people for them to see the need to observe the COVID-19 protocols whilst at the registration centre.
At the High Court Office/Nayiri Registration Centre, registrants were somehow frustrated with the slow pace of the registration process due to the freezing of the registration machine.
Some had problems such as non-recognition of their fingerprints whereas others had facial recognition challenges.
Hawa Iddrisu, the Registration Officer, told the GNA that they were working had to restore that machine to normalcy.
Other registration centres visited, GNA observed the presence of security personnel and political party agents including the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) keeping keen watch over the registration process.
GNA