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The much-awaited nationwide biometric registration exercise begun in the Western Region with the Electoral Commission encountering some operational hitches. Some of the registration centres visited by the Ghana News Agency(GNA) reporters in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis and Ahanta West District revealed that some EC officers recruited for the exercise could not turn on the laptops provided for the exercise while some printers were not functioning. Some scanners were also not able to pick the finger prints of some prospective registrants which delayed the registration process unduly. In addition, some batteries provided for charging the registration gadgets went low after using them for few hours and the EC had to provide generators to recharge them but the generators delayed in coming which halted the exercise at the New Amanful Primary "A" registration centre in the Ahanta West for hours. Some of the registration centres visited included New Takoradi Primary School, Takoradi Presbyterian Church,Old Adra and New Amanful Primary A. Mr Stephen Opoku Mensah, the Western Regional Electoral Director, said 1.5 million people are expected to register in the Region with 2,438 registration centres created. He said each electoral area had four registration centres and the registration officers would spend 10 days in each centre before moving to another centre. Some political parties' agents observing the exercise expressed dissatisfaction about the exercise. Mr Peter Bossman, a New Patriotic Party (NPP) polling agent at New Amanful Primary A centre, said the EC officers refused to provide the serial numbers of the registration forms to them before the registration started while after registrants are issued with their identity cards, the EC officers also failed to issue receipts to them. Some prospective registrants expressed their frustration over slow process of registration and non-availability of chairs to sit on at the centre.