Akwidaa (W/R), July 2, GNA – The Electoral Commission has commenced its month-long nationwide voter’s registration exercise.
The exercise was held in some 16 clusters made up of five registration centres each in the Ahanta West Constituency within the Ahanta West District Assembly (AWDA) of the Western Region.
Long queues started forming at the various registration centres even before the Electoral Officers arrived, while the exercise commenced with prospective voters adhering to COVID-19 protocols.
On efforts made to prevent the spread of COVID-19 considering the surge in the country, all the preventive protocols were observed accordingly such as wearing of nose masks at registration centre, usage of thermometer guns by EC officials, and provision of Veronica buckets, hand sanitizers, tissue papers and liquid soaps.
There were also security present with political parties agents stationed at each centre and some health officials ensuring strict adherence to the safety protocols outlined by the Electoral Commission and all of the safety measures.
Though the exercise was generally successful, there were some few hitches like bad roads making it difficult to transport equipment to the centres and some problems with the printers and machines, but with technical interventions everything was on course.
Mr Randy Kofi Nlorlodi Sokpe, District Officer of the Electoral Commission in an interview told the Ghana News Agency that the exercise was successful with the people complying with the requirements and protocols covering the registration exercise.
He was happy with the turnout especially being the first day of the exercise and said they were waiting for the end of day’s report to get the total number of those who came to register.
He disclosed that the machines being used were configured to enable the political parties to keep track of the number of voters being registered each day at the various centres.
Mr Anthony Nketsia Kofie, Constituency Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) noted that the compilation of the register was an ingredient for a free and fair election on December 7 and urged Ghanaians to move out and register.
According to him, the exercise would be conducted in five phases with each phase spanning six days with additional days for mop-up and for that matter there was no need to move from one electoral area to the other to register.
He urged the members of the NPP to participate in the ongoing exercise so as to retain President Akufo-Addo on December 7, adding, “let us join hands to ensure that every Ghanaian is able to register so that nobody will be left out.”
GNA