EC warns public against electoral offences in ongoing voters registration exercise

Ghana’s Electoral Commission has urged the public to desist from engaging in activities that undermine laws governing voter registration exercise in the country.

It follows what it has observed to be electoral offences in the on-going nationwide mass registration exercise.

Notable among the issues are attempts by some applicants to register at different centres other than their places of residence.

“Per law, an applicant can only register in a location where he/she resides or is ordinarily resident for not less than 12 months before registration”, a statement from the EC said.

Among other things, the electoral management body is cautioning against the following:

1. Presence of non-accredited persons at some Registration Centres.
2. Illegal possession and distribution of the Commission’s forms
3. Defacing of Posters and Movement Plans of the Commission posted at the Registration Centres.

“The Commission wishes to remind the public that only persons with accreditation are allowed to observe the process at the Registration Centres. All applicants are expected to leave the Registration Centres after registering. All eligible Applicants are required to wait for the registration team to get to their respective centres before attempting to register. We wish to caution the public against defacing any poster or Movement Plan of the Commission”, the EC noted.

It said the above offences are punishable by law where offenders pay a fine or term of imprisonment or both.

The Commission has however asked the public to disregard social media reports suggesting that some of its registration centres across the country have been closed down.

The EC on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, began a nationwide voter registration exercise towards the compilation of a new electoral roll for the December presidential and parliamentary elections.

The exercise is being held at 6,788 clusters made up of five registration centres each across the country.

This covers 33,367 registration centres situated within the country.

The face phase conducted in five phases, each phase spanning six days with additional days for mop-up.

Statistics from the election management body show that over 44,000 staff and over 5,000 technicians have been recruited, trained, and deployed while 8,000 biometric registration kits tried, tested and deployed.