Yesterday, the Electoral Commission (EC) announced measures that are intended to address the overwhelming response to the registration exercise, especially in the Greater Accra Region.
Ghanaians are witnesses to the massive response to the exercise, a situation which has occasioned in the sometimes overcrowding at some registration centres, rendering the strict application of the social distancing protocol a Herculean task.
The Commission’s announcement about a numbering system that should bring sanity to registration centres is in order and we wish to congratulate management of the institution for the well-thought-out move.
Under the unusual circumstances in which the Commission is working to compile a necessary voters’ roll, responding almost immediately to emerging situations such as posed by the overwhelming numbers is a mark of good management which should be encouraged.
We entreat the Commission to continue to monitor the exercise constantly to determine where appropriate interventions should be introduced to ensure the smooth sailing of the processes.
But for such monitoring, such a welcome intervention would not have come about.
We wish to state that so far there is nothing to suggest that those who are qualified to register have been denied the opportunity. We therefore demand that those who flew that propaganda piece to advance their political cause should be good enough to express remorse to Ghanaians for the dust they threw into their eyes.
Politics is about service to the people and not serving them mendacious stories which constitute invectives to their intelligence.
Another wonderful observation we have made about the exercise is that malfunctioning gadgets which bedevilled a previous exercise has not been noticed. This, of course, is an indication that in December when we turn up to cast our votes, the incidence of failing gadgets which can compromise the quality of the democratic process would not be encountered. The quality of a good play is determinable from the morning it starts, an Akan proverb has succinctly put it.
These are early days but we can state without hesitation that the Commission is chalking up success.
Complacency should, however, not set in. The field staff, especially who represent the façade of the Commission, should continue to discharge their duties to God and country.
The role of the Commission in a democracy is sine qua non. This is the reason why even under a pandemic situation its work cannot be put on hold. After all, the country cannot be put on hold indefinitely hence government’s adoption of an assortment of measures in response to the unusual times we find ourselves in. Life must go on, so should governance and all that support it to do so, elections et al.