Electoral Commission to engage political party agents during biometric registration

The Electoral Commission (EC) says it will engage political party agents at all the registration centers in the country when the biometric voters’ registration exercise commences on March 24.

The agents will assist the Commission to ensure that foreigners as well as minors are not registered, Mr. George Gyabaah, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Director of the EC, told the GNA in Sunyani on Monday.

The EC would make available challenge forms at the various centers so that those who are in doubt of the nationality of some of those who want to register could fill dispute forms.

He said the Commission had put in place all these and other measures to ensure that the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections are free, fair and transparent.

Mr. Gyabaah said features on the new biometric system could detect double registration and anybody who would breach the electoral law would be dealt with according to the law.

Voters’ identification cards would be issued instantly and appealed to all prospective voters to take advantage and register their particulars during the exercise to obtain the cards.

Mr. Gyabaah said the EC would engage 4,920 people to undertake the exercise in the region. The region would be divided into 715 clusters with each center being manned by six officers comprising registration and assistant registration officers, data and assistant data entry clerks, camera man and a laminator.

Mr Gyabaah said the EC had targeted to exceed the 1.2 million eligible voters on the electoral roll in the region during the exercise.

He said though the EC was yet to launch the national campaign on the new biometric registration exercise, the regional office had started public education in Churches and in Mosques and appealed to the clergy to support in the exercise.

A pilot programme on the exercise has begun in the Sunyani Municipality and Seikwa in the Tain District.

Source: GNA