The Electoral Commission (EC) will soon come out with a list of the first batch of people who are suspected to have engaged in multiple registration in the ongoing biometric voters registration exercise.
The Chairman of the EC, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, who made this known, stated that the commission would conduct its investigations on the culprits for prosecution.
Speaking to graphic.com.gh on the registration exercise, Dr Afari-Gyan explained that the EC would carry out an analysis of the data it had received so far and deal with those who had committed the crime of double registration.
He added that as of Tuesday, the central database of the commission had received the data of over one million people who had been registered nationwide, explaining that the figure could be more, since not all the data had been transfered into the system.
He admitted that there had been initial challenges with the use of the machines but said “the situation is improving day by day”.
He said the EC had realised the causes of some of the problems associated with the malfunctioning of some of the machines, adding that they worked better under shades.
Dr Afari-Gyan said the EC would provide shades for the machines to enable them to work better for the registration exercise.
On the long queues associated with the exercise, he assured Ghanaians that enough materials had been provided to cover all registration centres, adding that the 10 days allotted for registration teams to spend at each cluster was enough to ensure that every eligible voter was registered.
He explained that the long queues had arisen because people were rushing to other polling stations to register, instead of waiting for the registration teams to reach their respective registration centres.
The EC boss said people who registered at different centres would be expected to vote at those centres during the elections and, therefore, advised applicants to wait for their turn at their polling stations.
On the reported harassment by macho men, he wondered why there should be violence at registration centres and called on the police to deal with those macho men, since the issue was in their domain.
“The issue is worrying; it is wrong, it is disgraceful,” he said, and advised that suspected aliens and minors should be challenged through the normal process, instead of being manhandled.
“The EC cannot do much about this situation, since it falls directly under the jurisdiction of the police and they should deal firmly with such people,” he said.
On the presentation of National Health Insurance and National Identification cards for registration, Dr Afari-Gyan said that could be done provided the users were not aliens and minors.
He advised aliens and people below I8 years not to register, since the law would deal with them if they were found cheating.
Asked whether it was proper for students to register where they were schooling, he said there was nothing wrong for them to do so there.
“If students prefer to travel to their home towns to register, there is no problem with that. But if they prefer to register at the places where they are schooling, nothing also prevents them from doing so,” he explained.
Dr Afari-Gyan asked registration officials to do their duty as prescribed by the law and cautioned them against bending the rules, no matter who came to their desks for the registration exercise.
Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana
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