Harriet Boateng Sarpong
Accra Sept. 12 GNA – The first day of the Electoral Commission’s (EC) Limited Registration exercise began without incident, albeit slowly, at the EC’s Tema West Municipal Office.
Despite the fact that the exercise began at 0800 hours, without the technical challenges reported at other centres, only four applicants had registered by 0900 hours.
The Electoral Officer for the area, John Nunoo, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that though the process was seamless, the guarantor system was making the process sluggish.
“What has slowed us down is the guarantor system because so far, all the registrants have opted for the process, and we have to fill out the actual form 1A. This is slowing us down, but I know we will pick up as the exercise progresses.”
“We will be able to tell how fast the process will pick up after today and tomorrow,” he said.
When GNA visited the registration Centre at the Mexico School in Tema Community Two, where the Municipal EC office is located, about 70 first-time applicants patiently waited to be registered.
Only ten of the 70 applicants had Ghana Cards, with the rest employing the guarantor system.
Agents from the two major political parties, the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress, who had bused some of the applicants from Adjei Kojo, Spintex, and surrounding areas to the registration Centre, were seen eagerly organising to have them registered.
Mr Nunoo told the GNA that the Tema West Municipal Office of the EC was expected to register between 12,000 and 13,000 applicants by the close of the exercise on October 2, 2023.
To be registered under the guarantor system, new registrants who do not have a Ghana Card must present two Ghana Card holders to vouch for them.
Though the EC tried to eliminate the guarantor system, claiming that it could no longer provide the country with a secure method of voter registration, the EC’s requests were unanimously rejected by parliament.
GNA