Dr. Bossman Eric Asare, Deputy Chairman, Corporate Services, EC
The Electoral Commission (EC) will today begin a display of the voters’ register to enable citizens to authenticate their details across the 30,702 polling stations.
The process would lead to the deletion of names of dead people and those not eligible to be on the register.
The eight-day exercise ? which would end on Tuesday, September 17, 2019 ? is geared towards the successful conduct of the 2019 district level election and the upcoming referendum to decide whether political parties can sponsor and campaign at the district level election.
Speaking at a press briefing in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Chairman in charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Bossman Eric Asare, explained that the register which would be opened from 7:00am to 6:00 pm each day is to also provide avenues for eligible voters to raise objections to names of unqualified persons in the register.
“A voter may be unqualified if he or she is not a Ghanaian, not at least 18 years of age at the time of registration, not a resident or ordinary resident in the locality,” he said.
Dr. Asare also urged the public with information on deceased persons to volunteer such information backed by the requisite documents such as death certificates and original identification cards of deceased persons to serve as proof of death.
Other activities to be undertaken at the polling stations which would be demarcated as exhibition centres comprise inclusion of omitted names from register, replacement of voters’ cards that are of poor quality or damaged cards, correction of wrong registration centre codes, as well as change of names.
The deputy chairman, however, advised that “voters requesting for change of name must have published the said change in the gazette and also provided documentary evidence to that effect at the exhibition centre.”
He added that persons without identification cards would be assisted to verify their details in the absence of a voter card while persons who want to verify details of other relative would be required to provide the cards of proxy persons.
“It is important to note that request for major changes or corrections are regarded as a potential avenue for impersonation or identity theft, hence the need for biometric authentication at the Commission’s district office before change is effected,” he said.
Dr. Asare also indicated that a district registration review officer who is either a district court magistrate or a lawyer of at least three years standing would be assigned to make final determination on each complaints and objections raised during the exercise.
By Issah Mohammed