The Electoral Commission (EC) is still requesting to update the Parliament on the state of their preparedness for the 2020 elections on June 16, 2020, according to the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensa-Bonsu.
He had been pushing for the commission to brief the House on June 9, 2020.
But according to the Majority Leader, the electoral management body is still requesting to do so on June 16, 2020, due to some other exercises it is embarking on in some districts.
“We want to know how the pilot exercise went because we are major stakeholders. The leadership of the Special Budget Committee chaired by me with the Minority Leader as Vice-Chair extended an invitation to the Electoral Committee to come and brief the House on their preparedness for the 2020 general elections.”
“They (EC) have assured to here on June 16, 2020, but I was trying to pull them to be here on June 9, 2020, but they have indicated that they have to be in the various districts to pursue a course. In the intervening period there is been some developments have popped up including the Supreme Court’s directive to them to avail themselves on Monday, June 8, 2020,” he said.
EC’s satisfaction with pilot exercise
Meanwhile, the Commission has expressed satisfaction with the “successful” pilot registration exercise it conducted nationwide ahead of the new voters’ registration exercise.
“At the end of the two-day exercise, a total of 1,990 applicants were registered, with 745 applicants registered on Day One and 1,245 on Day Two,” the Commission noted in a statement.
The Commission further acknowledged that “the exercise went on smoothly at all the designated centres, except in the Western Region where the BVR Kit developed a fault on the second day.
“This led to the suspension of the exercise in the Western region but afforded the Commission the opportunity to test its inbuilt processes of dealing with equipment breakdowns during the registration process,” it added.
In as much as there were many challenges associated with the exercise, the EC has pledged to critically focus on the shortfalls in order to come out with the best of everything when the actual work begins.