Many young people who seek to record their names in the electoral roll have said their purpose is to get the card to enable them have a national identity card for opening bank accounts.
The prospective registrants who showed up at the Sowutuom Registration Centre at the forecourt of the Ga Central Municipal Assembly told the Ghana News Agency that getting an identity card overrides the intention to cast their ballots in the November poll.
“I am eager to have the voter ID card so that I can open my bank account and save some money. I cannot save at present because I don’t have any ID card. I am not here necessarily to register and vote in the elections,” Ms Felicity Amoasi said when the Limited Voter Registration Exercise opened on Thursday.
“I now only save through mobile money account. I am just hoping that I can register today and get my voter ID to go and quickly open a savings account,” Ms Amoasi, now in her 20th year, said.
Her sentiment represented that of the majority of the more than 45 young persons in the queue.
The Electoral Commission projects to capture 1.2 million new voters in the two-week exercise, which is also open to adults who do not have their names in the biometric register.
The special duty officer of the EC, Ms Juliana Sekyere, said the registration started at exactly at 0700 hours without a queue, but three hours later, people began massing up, creating a long backlog.
She said adequate registration materials had been provided, including verification kits, with backups in place to contain any drawback.
The National Democratic Congress, the Progressive People’s Party and the New Patriotic Party were the only parties with agents at the centre. They were closely monitoring the exercise as of about 1140 hours when the Ghana News Agency left the venue.
They variously described the registration proceedings as very peaceful, smooth and calm.
However, they complained about the slow pace, which was blamed on the many guarantors who certify an individual.
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