The Electoral Commission says the Voters Registration Exercise will continue today Thursday, 21st September, 2023 even though it’s a public holiday.
In a statement issued and signed by the Acting Head of Public Affairs of the EC, Michael Boadu, it urged the general public to take note and visit the various centres to get registered.
Ahead of the exercise, the commission had projected to register at least 1,350,000 persons
Already the Electoral Commission (EC) says it does not expect to cover all 1,350,000 persons targeted for registration in the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.
So far, EC providing updates on the registration exercise, said 182,831 persons had been registered as of Saturday, September 16 (six days into the exercise).
According to the EC chairperson, Jean Mensa who addressed a presser explained that out of the 182,831 persons that had been registered, 53.9 per cent were males, while females constituted 46.1 per cent.
In terms of the breakdown, she said the Ashanti Region had the highest number of registrants with 29,255, representing 16 per cent of the total registrants across the country.
This is followed by the Greater Accra and Eastern regions with 27,264 (14.9 per cent) and 19,327 (10.6 per cent) respectively.
The Central Region comes next with 17,590 (9.6 per cent), followed by the Northern Region with 12,982 (7.1 per cent); the Volta Region with 12,681 (6.9 per cent); the Western Region with 11,644 (6.4 per cent), and the Upper East Region with 8,639 (4.7 per cent).
The Bono East Region captured 7,291 (4.0 per cent); Western North, 6491 (3.6 per cent); Bono, 6580 (3.6 per cent); Upper West, 5,241 (2.9 per cent); Savannah, 4,655 (2.5 per cent); Ahafo, 4,519 (2.5 per cent); Oti, 4,427 (2.4 per cent) and North East, 4,244 (2.3 per cent).
She noted that its immediate focus was to register 52 per cent of the targeted population by the end of the 21-day exercise which started on Tuesday, September 12.
According to her, although the target had been revised downwards, all eligible persons would have the opportunity to be registered before the 2024 general election.
Mrs Mensa added that the EC would undertake a continuous registration exercise at all its district offices in 2024 for all eligible Ghanaians to be captured in the poll book.
She said after the current exercise, there would be a mop-up registration for persons in hard-to-reach areas.
The EC started the limited voter registration exercise on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, in line with Article 45 of the 1992 Constitution.
The limited registration exercise aims to capture persons who turned 18 years old since the last registration in 2020 as well as other eligible persons who had not previously registered with the EC.
The voter registration, which is expected to end on October 2, is being conducted in the 268 district offices of the commission across the country.
-BY Daniel Bampoe