Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) is blaming political actors at the local level for the pockets of violence that have been recorded across some registration centres recently.
The EC is cautioning politicians to adhere to the set rules governing the exercise and desist from any act that would mar the registration exercise.
Addressing the ‘Let the citizens know’ series in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Chairman of the EC, Mr Samuel Tettey, said the EC vehemently condemned “such acts, especially during a civil exercise such as the registration of voters” and called on the security agencies to investigate the issues, as a matter of urgency, and bring the perpetrators to book to serve as a deterrent to other would-be offenders,”.
He said in some cases, registration officials were attacked physically or verbally and some applicants prevented from registering.
“These acts by political party agents and sympathisers disrupt the registration process and at times lead to closure of the centres for the rest of the day,” he said.
Mr Samuel Tettey said, “At the end of the third phase, 8,246,140 applicants had been registered, representing almost 55 per cent of the commission’s national projected registerable figure of 15 million,” he said.
He explained that as of July 20, 2020, a total of 9,860,164 applicants had been registered, representing 65.7 per cent of the projected 15 million.
“It is imperative to note that the deployment of more kits to the registration centres, increase in the number of mobile teams and back-ups and immediate replacement of faulty kits have resulted in the relative increment of persons registered in phase three,” Mr Tettey noted.
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Ghanamatters.com
