Jean Mensa
Today is expected to mark the end of a two-day registration exercise for students of senior high schools (SHSs) across the country which started yesterday.
The exercise, which the Electoral Commission (EC) announced earlier, was intended to ensure that eligible students were not disenfranchised.
While students are entreated to register, political parties too were asked by the commission to send their agents to such locations where the registration would take place as it gave an assurance that strict compliance with the existing hygiene protocols would be observed during the exercise.
In an interview on the subject, the Director of Electoral Services, Dr. Serebuor Quaicoe, explained that schools without registration centres would be, as he put it, “matched to current registration centres that had been gazetted.”
EC Decision
This decision, he said, was informed by the fact that at the time of creating the registration centres, the possibility of schools reopening was excluded from the equation.
He added that the students were being registered through this special arrangement because of the restriction on their movements as they stay on school campuses.
“As you are all aware, the registration centres have been gazetted and so we are registering folks and assigning them to such registration centres. We know that some senior high schools serve as registration centres so they are part of the movement plan in phases. We received information from the GES that the students were not supposed to go outside of campus.
“So the commission decided that we would use our mobile team to capture them. Once they are captured, they will be assigned to centres that would have registered them had it not been for the restrictions. So we met with political parties and informed them that we are going to register and assign them to the polling centres which serve such schools,” he said.
Key Concerns
Some members of the public had earlier raised concern about the exclusion of final-year students of the SHSs currently restricted to their schools.
On whether or not the arrangement is a breach of the law, he said this was misplaced, adding,
“The commission holds a different view, because we are registering them and assigning them to the registration centres that have been gazetted, so we hold a different view.”
NDC Demurs
The Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Boamah Otokunor, said the “newly created centres” had not been gazetted to allow for their use in the ongoing voters’ registration exercise.
“So this exercise they are going to have is not only illegal, it is also unacceptable and unethical, especially considering the fact that the EC waits to do all it wants to do and call political parties to inform them a day before the exercise. Now we have the EC unethically and unacceptably doing their thing and saying they are going to register all secondary schools, be it as illegal as it is. This is unacceptable, bizarre and must be resisted by all well-meaning Ghanaians,” he added.
Parent-Teacher Associations
The National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations of Ghana complained about not being consulted before the EC’s decision to register students.
“The students were to be in school to do their revision and sit for the exams,” Alexander Danso, the President of National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, told a radio station, adding that they were being exposed to more risks of contracting Covid-19.
“Those who are coming to do the registration, have they been tested? Are they free from the virus? We have to take into consideration all these things,” Mr. Danso queried.
“But if you do not consult and you do not do anything and you say you are going to register the students, is that why they brought them to the school? That is not part of it,” he added.
GES Consultation
The EC’s decision followed its consultation with the Ghana Education Service (GES), with July 10 and July 11 being the dates the GES allocated for the exercise.
This registration will take place in all SHSs that do not have polling stations within them.
NPP Position
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) said the EC’s move to begin registering SHS students in schools without registration centres breached no law.
According to the Director of Elections and Research for the NPP, Evans Nimako, the EC is not creating new registration centres as being speculated by the NDC.
“As of the start of the registration exercise, the EC provided us with the movement schedule which comprises all the 33,367 polling stations which will serve as registration centres. We all know that we are not in normal times so in previous registration exercises our brothers and sisters in the SHSs moved out to registration centres within the catchment areas of the school,” he said.
“In view of the fact that senior high students cannot move out, it becomes difficult for them to access the registration centres within the catchment areas. And so if the EC comes out with the innovation that instead of students moving out, they will rather move their registration centre to schools for them to have their franchise assured, it beats me if anybody wants to disagree with this arrangement,” he added.
“The EC has the mobile registration team so it is just an issue of the registration kits that will be moved to the campus to get them registered. They are also Ghanaians who are eligible to vote under the law; so do you want to disenfranchise them and say that because they cannot move out to the registration centre, you will deny them the opportunity to register?” he asked rhetorically.
Disregard Rumours
In another development, the Chairperson of the EC, Mrs. Jean Mensa, has denied rumours that she has tested positive for Covid-19.
A statement signed by the Ag. Director of Public Affairs said, “The commission wishes to state categorically that this is an outright lie and a figment of the author’s warped imagination.”
“The chairperson is well and at post. She has not tested positive for the coronavirus,” the statement said.
Continuing, the statement urged the general public to disregard the lies and fabrications and treat the story with the contempt it deserves.
By A.R. Gomda