Accra, Ghana, June 30, 2020//-Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) today began a nationwide voters’ registration exercise, following the greenlight given by the Supreme Court to compile a new electoral roll ahead of the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.
But EC officials manning the exercise underway across the country are struggling to control crowds. In most of the registration centres visited by African Eye Report revealed that majority of people who are queued to register are not observing the COVID-19 protocols.
The exercise which is being held under 6,788 clusters comprising five registration centres each has been marred with teething challenges including machine breakups, late starts, argument over nationality, and poor knowledge on the parts of the EC officials on the exercise.
Faisel Abdul-Iddrisu, Correspondent of Starr FM, an Accra based radio station reported that EC officials at the Akuse Park registration centre in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta Region were struggling to control the scores of residents who had stormed the centre for registration.
The residents were jostling over positions in the queue, according to the report.
The Ketu South Constituency has a total of 254 polling stations but only a few are undertaking the exercise on Day 1 and phase 1 of the exercise. As a result, residents out of anxiety are massing up at nearby centres to register.
At the Akusa Park, there is a Veronica bucket and health officials deployed to screen the applicants but adherence to the social distancing protocol is poor as the electoral officials struggle to control the enthusiastic crowd.
So far, only 8 people have been able to go through the process since the commencement of the exercise delayed.
There is no security presence at the Akusa Park registration centre, the situation is same at the Global Church and the Old Timber, except for the Old Timber market registration center where there was one police officer.
Ketu South has become topical in the build-up of the registration exercise after reports of military deployment to the area. The area is seen as the stronghold of the opposition NDC.
African Eye Report/Starrfm online
