The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced that the Biometric Voters Register (BVR) will be ready on Monday and distributed to all eligible political parties ahead of next month�s general elections.
Dr. Kwadwo Afari Djan, chairman of the EC, disclosed this to the Ghanaian Times after an Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting held in Accra, yesterday.
Initial estimates after the EC exhibited the BVR in September, peaked the voter population at a little over 14 million.
A total of 1,332 parliamentary aspirants, made up of 1,199 men and 133 women have also filed their nominations to contest the election in all the 275 constituencies in the 10 regions across the country.
The meeting which lasted for almost three hours afforded officials of the Commission and member of IPAC the opportunity to discuss and find concrete solutions to some challenges associated with the Biometric Registration and verification System.
It was necessitated by concerns raised by the political parties about the commission�s delay in releasing copies of the biometric voters register to guide the parties devise effective strategies to win the election.
Parliamentary candidates, in particular were said to be in dire need of the register to know the number of voters in their respective constituencies.
Dr. Afari-Djan said only 2000 out of the 26,000 polling centres would have a register with more than 1000 voters and so there was no cause for alarm that some of the electorate would be disenfranchised after voting had ended December 7.
Dr. Afari-Djan said the verification machines would be powered by batteries with back-ups which could last for long hours, therefore, there would be no cause to worry about power failure from the national grid.
�We are confident that our machines would work perfectly and we would have a smooth voting process,� he said.
Members of IPAC suggested to the EC to ensure that in the event of breakdown of the machines, elections should be stopped at any giving polling station and conducted again within seven days.
They also maintained that the register contained the names of minors in some constituencies and thus, implored on the commission to devise strategies to prevent them from voting.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) was represented by Alhaji Hudu Yahaya and Johnson Asiedu-Nketsia, the General Secretary while the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the National Chairman, and Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the MP for Manhyia.
The Convention People�s Party (CPP) was represented by Abu Forgor, the National Organiser and Parliamentary candidate for Damango and Kwesi Deddie, the Director of Education whiles the Peoples National Convention (PNC) was represented by Mr. Emmanuel Wilson.
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