The Electoral commission has touted its success in achieving a democratic feat in its dispensation of a new voter’s compilation exercise.
It however stated that registration of new persons fizzled out in the final phase of the exercise.
“The Commission is again pleased to say that the registration exercise has achieved the objective of deepening the country’s democratic ethos. So far all those who have availed themselves to the registration centers have been registered.
“This week has witnessed one of the least numbers of registrants in all the regions of our country. This is not surprising because a number of the people had been captured by our officials before the final phase of the registration began”.
In an interaction with the media, the Deputy Chair in charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Eric Bossman Asare, stated that all regions except the Volta Region recorded a marginal increase in their respective voter populations captured in the previous register.
Essentially, the figures from Dr. Bossman saw the Greater Accra Region recording the highest registration of 3,466,751, representing 20.8 per cent of the total registration.
Ashanti Region follows with a total registration of 2,980,475, representing 17.9 per cent while the Central Region has registered 1,557,991 people.
“Since the last briefing, the Greater Accra Region, Ashanti Region and the Volta Region saw reduction in their percentage” he said.
He noted that but for the new registration, the Commission would have added about 2 million new voters from the limited registration to the 16,845,420 voters.
“Potentially without the compilation of the voter register, the Commission was on track to register about 19 million with the limited registration exercise”.
He expressed the satisfaction of the EC with the entire exercise, which began on Tuesday, June 30.
“As a Commission, we are pleased with what we have been able to do so far”.
EC mop-up registration
The mop-up registration by the electoral commission is scheduled to take place at the various offices of the Commission on Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, with the figures expected to shoot up.
Dr. Eric Bossman indicated that, the total number of registered voters will be disclosed upon the completion of the registration process.
“In the next few days when the entire process to certify the register is completed, the total number of registered voters will be announced to the general public. As a Commission, we are pleased with what we have been able to do so far, and we are looking forward to the cooperation of all stakeholders for the success of our 2020 activities”.
Dr. Eric Bossman
The EC’s move to compile a new register ahead of the December 7, 2020 polls had been met with resistance by some political parties and civil society organizations (CSOs).
Aside that the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) scourge had been an issue of grave concern and many had little or no hope in the ability of the Commission to carry out the exercise.
That notwithstanding, the Electoral commission prides itself in scaling past those challenges.