Dr. Serebour Quaicoe
The Electoral Commission is more concerned about the mandate to ensure the sanctity of the voters register, hence the decision to restrict the limited voters registration exercise to the district offices, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, the Director of Electoral Services at the commission has said.
Speaking on Joy FM’s news analysis programme – Newsfile, Dr. Quaicoe said those calling for the extension of the limited voters’ registration from the district offices to the electoral areas are only concerned about increasing the number of new voters and not the sanctity of the register.
He said the district offices are more equipped at ensuring a clean register.
“For the media and the CSOs, your attention is register them, register them, register them, that is the focus of the media and the CSOs. And probably that may be the reason why maybe you are quoting my chair, at that time she was a CSO [when Mrs Jean Mensa was working at IEA]. But when you come into the kitchen that is where you see that your responsibility changes.
“The thinking of the Commission is that it is to register people and also to protect the sanctity of the register. That is very, very important that nobody is talking about. You are going to compile voters’ register that would be used to determine who leads Ghana in all fronts. What goes into the register should be something that should not bring about issues”, he said.
Dr. Serebuor Quaicoe said the ongoing district registrations are geared towards the upcoming district level elections.
He explained that while the ongoing registration will be limited to the district offices, next year, the commission will roll out another registration exercise that will be held in the electoral areas.
He said, “we are revising the register to give those who have turned 18 years who want to take part in the district level elections to get the opportunity to register so that next year we can now go out fully with the continuous voters register.”