Ghana’ Electoral Commission has opened thousands of polling stations across the country today (Thursday) for a limited voter registration exercise.
This exercise is exclusively opened to people who have turned 18 and those who have not registered before. Ghana goes to the polls in November 2016 to elect President and Members of Parliament to govern the country in the next four years. The last time the West African country went to the polls was in 2012.
The EC hopes to register about 1.2 million people over the next 10 days at the selected polling stations.
However, some civil society and pressure groups have criticised the EC for low publicity ahead of the exercising, suggesting that better publicity would encourage turnout.
The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) for instance has called on the EC to intensify publicity on the exercise, particularly on the modalities.
It also says it has deployed 250 observers nationwide to observe the conduct of the limited voter registration exercise.
“CODEO concluded its training for all observers on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, and has received accreditation for the exercise for the Electoral Commission. CODEO observers, deployed in all the 216 districts across the country, will observe both the first and second phases of the exercise which commences [today],” said a statement signed by National Coordinator, Albert Arhin.
