EC recorded no cases of COVID-19 during voter’s registration exercise

The Electoral Commission (EC) has revealed that there were no recorded cases of the coronavirus from the 17 million registered voters.

Also, the 45,000 registration officers, present at the registration centers did not contract the virus during the nationwide exercise.

Speaking at a two days virtual learning event organized by Ghana Foundation, Dr. Bossman Eric Asare, Deputy Chairman of the EC in-charge of Corporate Services, noted the Commission’s checks with the relevant state authorities such as the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the National COVID-19 Task Force, revealed that no single person had been reported of having contracted COVID-19 during the process of registering as a voter.

According to Dr. Bossman, ahead of the registration exercise, the EC put in measures to contain the spread of the virus.

“As a result of that, as a Commission, we had an engagement with the Ghana Health Service. We also met the National COVID-19 Task Force, and they explained certain things to us. They told us the things we needed to do to be able to ensure that we don’t get to the point where the people may end up contracting COVID-19.

“Consequently, the EC put all the necessary scientific measures in place at all our registration centres. At the end of the exercise on August 8th and 9th; and even till now, nothing has come to the attention of the EC that the registration exercise led to people contracting COVID-19”.

The Deputy EC Chairman opined that the Commission remained dedicated to helping contain the spread of the virus ahead of the December polls and called for the support of all.

Dr. Asare said, in 2016, the threshold for each polling station was 850 voters,  as such no polling station exceeded 850 (voters) in 2016.

With this, he explains that “because of the pandemic in 2020, the Commission is saying that the maximum number of voters per registration centre will be 700”.

“With this registration we undertook, any registration centre that has more than 700 people, we are going to split them into “A” and “B”.”

Also, in the Commission’s estimation, such centres were about 6,000. By this, “all the 6,000 centres that have registered more than 700 people, we are going to split them into “A” and “B” to reduce the queues at the polling stations.”

“Depending on the alphabetical order of your name, you will either be in polling station “A” or polling station “B”.”

Alhaji Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu, Chief Executive Officer, STAR-Ghana Foundation, said the Foundation had committed $250,000 for phase two of its Elections 2020 Call programme.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference has called for an extension of the verification and exhibition of the ongoing voter register by three weeks.

The President of the Conference, Archbishop Philip Naameh said this is to ensure that every voter has had his or her details verified in the register.

Tension and controversy has begun on the voters’ register as the main opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC), has alleged that some names, particularly those of its supporters, are missing from the register.