Information from the Volta Regional Office of the Electoral Commission indicates that about 19,513 persons successfully registered on the first day of the new voter’s registration exercise ongoing in the Volta region.
The turnout goes to confirm the enthusiasm and interest in the new voters’ register which had been a contentious issue in the past one year.
It also goes to discredit the claims by the opposition NDC that there was a calculated attempt to disenfranchise persons in the Volta Region, particularly those in the border communities.
The Regional Director of the Electoral Commission in Volta, Selormey Dogbey Adukpo speaking with some media houses noted that the first day of the 38-day nationwide exercise in the region was generally peaceful with no reported incident of equipment malfunction.
Turnout was encouraging and there have not been reports of insufficient registration materials.
He said Covid-19 safety protocols at the registration centres were largely adhered to.
However, DGN Online’s tour of some of the registration centres in Ho and the Ketu South Municipality indicates that centres with very high turnouts saw registrants flouting the social distance protocol as they jostled for spots in the long queues.
Occasionally Registration Officers had to halt the registration exercise to get them to space out in according to the social distancing standards.
A total of 409 registration clusters have been deployed across the 18 constituencies of the Volta region for the voter registration exercise.
The registration centres in these clusters will be rotating after every five to six days till every corner of the 18 constituencies are covered.
From Fred Duodu, Ho (k.duodu@yahoo.com)