By Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), May 6, GNA – The Electoral Commission (EC) says it is set to conduct the upcoming limited voter registration in the Upper West Region with all the necessary materials and equipment in place for the successful conduct of the exercise.
The exercise is expected to be conducted in all the 11 districts and municipal offices of the EC in the region as well as the Dr. Hilla Limann Technical University and the SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies.
There would also be 32 mobile registration teams, which would be moving from one registration centre to another to register eligible Ghanaians.
Mr Ali Osman, the Upper West Regional Director of the EC, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa on Monday ahead of the registration exercise, expected to commence on Tuesday, May 7, 2024.
Out of the 32 moving registration teams, there would be three teams in the Wa Municipality, two teams in the Wa West District, nine teams in the Wa East District, two in the Nadowli-Kaleo District and two in the Daffiama-Bussie-Issah District.
The rest are two teams in the Jirapa Municipality, three teams in the Lambussie District, three teams in the Lawra Municipality, four teams in the Sissala East Municipality and two teams in the Sissala West District.
Mr Ali said the district and Municipal officers of the EC were on standby at the Regional Office to convey the registration materials and equipment to the various districts and municipalities for the exercise to take off on the scheduled date.
He encouraged all eligible Ghanaians to register and be issued voter’s Identity Cards to enable them to participate in the December 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
He, however, advised the public against attempts to engage in double registration as that was an offence and anyone apprehended in that act would face the consequences.
He indicated that the registration exercise would be done online and where there was no mobile network connectivity, it would be done offline.
“With the online, we will be able to detect double registration, but the problem is with the offline because it cannot be detected instantly.
“But the system will detect it when the data is uploaded to the online database and such names will be captured as double registration.
That means they cannot vote and when we get such people, we will prosecute them because it is criminal to double register”, the Regional EC Boss said.
The EC had scheduled to conduct the limited voter registration exercise from Tuesday, May 7, 2024, to Monday, May 27, 2024, ahead of the December 2024 general election.
The 21-day exercise targeted individuals who had turned 18 years old since the last registration and those above 18 years but had not yet registered to be enrolled in the national voters’ album.
GNA