Massive Turnout For New Voters’ Register

A registrant placing her fingers on the biometric identification device.

THE ELECTORAL Commission (EC) has commenced the compilation of a new voters’ register across the various registration centres nationwide.

Scores of people turned up at the registration centres and went through various processes in acquiring a copy of the card.

Personal details including name, date of birth and place of residence of registrants were entered into a system.

Photographs were subsequently taken and the cards were issued instantly.

When DGN Online visited some of the registration centres in Accra, it found out that provisions were made for the safety of the registrants.

Veronica buckets of water, containers of hand sanitizer and soap and several rolls of tissue paper were made available at the entrance of each centre.

Prior to entry, registrants were made to mandatorily wash their hands and apply the sanitizer before and after acquiring their cards.

There was also a staff of the EC on standby who took the temperature of each registrant on entry.

At the Roxy Cinema registration centre in Accra, the atmosphere was calm as registrants went through the procedures peacefully.

Same can also be said of the Additrom School, another registration centre in Accra.

In an interview with DGN Online, Richmond Ahadjie, Registration Assistant at the Roxy Cinema said his team did not encounter any challenges when they arrived earlier in the day to set up.

As at mid-day, they had successfully registered and issued copies of the new voters’ card to about fifty-one persons and expect to hit about one hundred by close of day, he added.

Munerah Tagoe, Registration Officer at the Additrom School also indicated her team has enjoyed a relatively peaceful atmosphere at work.

She disclosed that “we have not encountered any health challenge or anyone with an abnormal temperature but if it happens, we have a procedure we will go through.”

At about 1 pm, Ms Tagoe said over 40 persons had been successfully registered with more persons seated outside waiting patiently for their turns.

In the course of the exercise, some persons were denied the opportunity to register by some residents who protested that they were not known residents of the community.

However, the timely intervention of the EC team, with the help of some community leaders quickly saw the issue resolved within a few minutes.

After successfully acquiring his card, James Agyeman Quarshie expressed excitement for the card and said he was pleased with how peaceful and well-coordinated the process went.

On the overall, the whole process was largely smooth and registrants had no qualms complying with the safety protocols put in place.

It is expected that more people would turn out in the coming days as the EC is poised to deliver on its mandate in compiling a new voters’ roll as Ghana prepares for the December 2020 polls.

By Nii Adjei Mensahfio