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Ghanaians yesterday began registering for a new voters’ register across the country.

The exercise which is being conducted by the Electoral Commission (EC), is taking place in all polling stations nationwide in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and in all, the EC has deployed 44,000 registration officers for the exercise.

According to Jean Mensa, Chairperson of the Commission, all the officers have been given the appropriate training to carry out the exercise without challenges.

Indeed, reports reaching the Ghanaian Times from the registration centres indicate that save few hitches, the exercise took off smoothly in all parts of the country.

We are not anticipating that the exercise would go on without hitches and we are prepared to live with some basic challenges that may occur as we go along. We hope and pray that EC and its officials would be able to handle the challenges in order to prove critics wrong.

We are concerned however, about the non-adherence to the COVID-19 safety protocols at registration centres.

We are informed that although the Commission had made available all what is needed to ensure safety at the registration centres, many of the people who visit the registration centres to register are simply not observing the safety protocols. This is very disturbing.

We do not know why some defiantly ignore the safety protocols when that should be our priority at all the registration centres.

It beggars belief that some amongst us would blatantly refuse to adhere to preventive measures that are supposed to protect everybody at the registration centres. It is important to stress that the disease is real and those who ignore the directives are putting everyone at risk.

It is baffling that although those who defy the orders know too well the consequences of their actions, yet they go ahead to engage in such unpatriotic behaviours.

We wish to reiterate the call for all applicants to adhere to the measures instituted to curb the spread of the disease.

It would not make any sense for all of us to register without observing the safety protocols and contract the disease and die.

Of what benefit would it then be for us, to go through the trouble to register in this all important exercise if we cannot live to cast our votes in the December 7, 2020 polls?

We trust that the health and security personnel deployed to the registration centres will ensure strict adherence to the safety protocols for a successful registration exercise.