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There has been a lot of commentary on the press conference held by the Jane Mensah-led NPP Re-election Commission since it was held on Thursday 17th August 2023. My intention is not just to add one to their
number but to present a point of view as an expert in biometric technology and mass registration exercise and secondly to expose the misinformation that has been spewed.
Although the EC constantly gives anyone who doesn’t want to be a spectator course to speak up, some of us will not get tired exposing their incompetence and wicked intentions. Just like in the recent past, the EC is still taking the nation on a slippery slope. I recall that since 2020, the EC has not carried out any exercise to register new eligible voters. That means, Ghanaians in the 18-21 years bracket have not had the opportunity of getting their names on the voters register. One can imagine the sigh of relief these young men and women had when the EC finally announced the registration exercise. Unfortunately, most of these potential voters stand the risk of being disenfranchised if the EC is not called to order.
According to the EC’s modalities, the registration exercise;
“will take place in all the 268 District Offices of the Commission including
the Guan District. In other words, each District Office will serve as a
Registration Center”.This means eligible Ghanaians living far and near the Constituency/District
capitals where the District offices are located, will have to travel from their
place of abode to the Constituency/District Capital before they can register.
A quick scan through the non-urban constituencies in Ghana indicates that
there are several places within the constituencies where eligible registrants will have to pay in excess of Fifty Ghana Cedis (GHS 50) in and out by means of transportation to get to the Constituency/District Capitals before they can register. Let me highlight on the transportation burden on such eligible registrants in some specific constituencies: Take the case of farmer Karim who lives in Bamboi in the Bole/Bamboi District. Karim will have to travel two and half hours to Bole and another two and half hours back at the cost of Eighty Ghana Cedis (GHS 80) in order to register per the EC’s modalities. If Karim does not have a Ghanacard, then per the NIA’s performance, he will have to make this trip several times first to get his
Ghana Card and finally travel again for the EC registration. Oh wait, there is another option for Karim if he has no Ghana Card. He will have to bare the transportation cost of two guarantors in addition to his, a total cost of Two Hundred and Forty Ghana Cedis (GHS 240) just to get registered.
This is the story for many other places, hence the disenfranchisement will be widespread if the EC is allowed to go on the path it has decided. For instance, the Afram Plains has the largest land mass in the Eastern Region with 2,341.3 square kilometers. Out of the 31 electoral areas and 127 polling stations, 13 electoral areas and 54 polling stations are located on various islands. Owing to how the topography of the constituency is,constituents are compelled to rely on boats, canoes and ferries as the only reliable means of transport. To this end, one has to travel several kilometers and long hours on water and commute by road to Donkorkrom to access the district capital at the cost of over a Hundred Ghana Cedis per person and over Three Hundred Ghana Cedis if guarantors are to be transported. This journey cannot be done in a day so accommodation will have to be
arranged for the eligible registrant and his/her guarantors
Source:Osei Kwame Griffiths(Fmr. Executive Secretary, NIA)