Credible voter registration can be created through vigilance – EC Official

Mrs Pauline Adobea Dadzawa, a commissioner of the Electoral Commission (EC), has stated that the commission would be able to get a credible voter register if all stakeholders are vigilant during the biometric registration exercise.

She said the EC alone could not produce a reliable voter register if practices like impersonation   and multiple registrations were overlooked by the general public.

Mrs Dadzawa said this during a day’s Dialogue on the Biometric voter registration for the media and Queen mothers in the Central Region in Cape Coast.

The  Dialogue which was organized by the  EC in collaboration with  KAB Governance Consult  (KGC) was to build a consensus between all stakeholders  as well as educate them on the  requirements for the voter  registration, history of voter registration, challenges and the need for the  Biometric voter registration.

Mrs Dadzawa said the commission was committed at producing a credible and reliable voter register to give the 2012 elections the needed credibility and that over the years the commission had embarked on a number of measures to improve upon the voter register.

She explained that over the years before the commission would conduct an election it would create a credible register, stressing that during the 1992 election the Commission used the house to house registration method which had its own challenges and that in the 1995 registration the commission introduced the Voter ID cards with coloured photos for urban areas whiles the rural areas used the thumb print ID.

The commissioner said in 2000 all the  thumb print ID cards were changed to coloured Photo ID and that in 2004 the photos  in the  ID  were changed from colour to black and white  to differentiate between the old and the new cards.

Mrs Dadzawa said even though the EC had put in place  a number of  measures to create a credible register it was still saddled with the problem of impersonation and multiple registration hence the introduction of the  Biometric voter registration system .

She said the  Biometric  registration system would be  an improvement  over the previous  registrations  and that the exercise could cover a  100 percent  registration and urged the media to intensify  public education on the need for all to register since without  the Biometric voter card  they would not be able to exercise their franchise.

Source: GNA