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Suraya AliduThe Electoral Commission (EC) has disclosed that it does not expect to cover all 1,350,000 persons targeted for the ongoing limited voter registration exercise
According to the EC, they are rather targeting to register 52 per cent of the earlier targeted population by the end of the 21-day exercise.
The Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, made this known to journalists at the Let the Citizens Know series Monday, September 18, 2023.
She said all eligible persons would have the opportunity to be registered before the 2024 general election, albeit the target has been downwardly revised.
The exercise started on Tuesday, September 12 and is expected to end on Monday October 2, 2023, but Mrs Mensa explained 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, hence her decision to stick to the 216 districts, despite loud calls for her to rescind that decision.
“This is not the only registration exercise prior to the 2024 elections. There will be continuous voter registration in all our district offices in 2024 before the elections.
We do not intend to disenfranchise any eligible voter,” she said.
Again, she said after the current exercise, there would be a mop-up registration for persons in hard-to-reach areas.
Meanwhile, as of Saturday, September 16, Mr Mensah announced that about 182,831 persons had been registered. Out of which 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).
The EC chair who was recently awarded by the Internal Audit Agency for transparency, admitted to there been a few challenges encountered at the beginning of the exercise, but said those challenges had been resolved.
Mrs Mensa stressed that as the body mandated to register voters, the EC would not supervise an exercise that would disenfranchise eligible Ghanaians.
“The EC will do everything possible to ensure that all eligible voters desirous of registering do so to exercise their franchise,” she said.
Suraya Alidu Malititi/ adwoaadubianews.com