The national biometric voters registration exercise took off to a flying start Saturday, despite some technical challenges which slowed down the process at some registration centres.
Malfunctioning printers and laptops and the inability of thumbprint machines to connect the computers were some of the challenges which confronted the exercise at some centres.
Ineffective communication of the schedules for the registration exercise added to the frustration of some applicants who visited registration centers which were not part of the first phase of the exercise, slated for March 24 to April 2.
The second phase is scheduled to take place from April 4 to 13, with the third phase starting from April 15 to 24, while the last phase begins from April 26 to May 5.
The technical hitches notwithstanding, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, was upbeat that the exercise would be conducted successfully.
In an interview with graphic.com.gh, he assured Ghanaians that the EC had enough experienced technicians to deal with any technical hiccups that would emerge at every registration centre.
He said two technicians had been deployed to each district, while there was a back-up team at the 10 regional offices and a team of experts at the national level to move to any registration centre to address the technical problems that might come up.
Dr Afari-Gyan said the EC was aware of most of the problems that might come up because they had been detected during the pilot registration exercise.
He added that the commission had enough back-up parts for all the kits, including extra kits in cases where the kits might not be operational.
On the large number of people who formed queues at registration centres on the first day of the exercise, he said it could be due to the fact that some applicants were not aware that the registration centres had been grouped into clusters of four.
He explained that a team would operate at a registration centre for a period of 10 days and move to another registration centre within the cluster for another 10 days. �It will spend 10 days at each registration centre until all registration centres in the electoral area are covered,� he added.
He noted that electoral areas that were large and had more polling stations would have two or more registration teams.
Commenting on the slow pace of registration at some centres, Dr Afari-Gyan said that it was not unusual, particularly in the initial days, and gave an assurance that the technicians would pick up the pace as the days went by.
Meanwhile, at the Race Course, near Sowutuom in Accra, the exercise, which was scheduled to start at 7 a.m., began between 8:30 and 10 a.m. at most of the registration centers within the area.
The late start was attributed to the late arrival of registration officers and some technical problems.
At the Bethel Foundation centre, the exercise began as late as 10:30 a.m. because of the late arrival of registration officers, coupled with the inability of officers to activate the registration machine.
As of 1:30 p.m. only three people had had their data captured.
According to the registration officer in charge of the centre, Ms Mary Antwi, prospective applicants had to wait for about 45 minutes for a technician to fix the problem, but the machine kept going off and on.
She said it required a minimum of 10 to 15 minutes for an applicant to complete a process, noting that the process was slow because the speed at which the officers captured the data was not the best.
At the Holy Temple of Christ Church centre, although registration was smooth, the exercise came to a halt at 4:40 p.m. due to the breakdown of the machine.
Explaining the reason for the break down, the registration officer, Mr Peter Ewasi Fogoh, said the machine got frozen and the registration officers found it difficult to reach the technician to fix the problem.
Attempts by some unscrupulous people to jump the queue in the early hours of the exercise nearly marred the registration process at the Toll Booth centre.
The melee resulted in about 12 registration forms getting spoilt.
According to the Assistant Registration Officer, Mr Marcus Nyarvie, in spite of the challenges, the centre registered 61 people.
Representatives of the two major political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), were present to observe the exercise. Meanwhile, there were no security personnel.
At the end of the first day of registration at the Madina Social Welfare centre in Accra, the centre successfully registered 196 people.
When graphic.com.gh arrived at the centre at 2 p.m., 65 people had already been registered, with about 30 people waiting in a queue to be registered.
In a chat, the Assistant Registration Officer for the centre, Ms Margaret Amoafo, said patronage at the centre had been impressive.
An applicant, who gave his name only as George, expressed satisfaction with the peaceful nature of the exercise.
At the Okai Koi North Constituency in Accra, the exercise was fraught with technical challenges, identification problems and fisticuffs between supporters of the NDC and the NPP.
At the Achimota Primary School Centre, the official sent there to man the scanner did not turn up.
Calls to the district office for a replacement did not yield any result.
As of 3 p.m., 32 people had been registered, but they were without valid ID cards.
At the Forest Quarters Registration Centre, blows were exchanged between NDC and NPP supporters over who qualified to monitor the exercise, even though there were accredited party agents.
As of 2 p.m., 63 people had been registered before the scanners went off.
Although the atmosphere at the Alogboshie Cluster of Schools centre was largely peaceful, a number of first-time voters who turned up to register were sent home. As of 11 a.m., about 50 people had been registered.
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