The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) and law enforcement agencies to ensure that all required protocols are strictly observed in the ongoing voters’ registration exercise.
The Association argues that breaches at the registration centres “will result in an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.”
The GBA’s caution follows the circulation of a video showing how some registration officials at some centres were failing to clean the fingerprint scanners before and after their use.
The EC subsequently said it had begun investigating the breaching of COVID-19 protocols by these officials.
There have been reports of disregard for COVID-19 safety protocols at some registration centres since the exercise kicked off, forcing the EC to introduce some measures to ensure a greater level of compliance to COVID-19 preventive measures.
The EC introduced the queue management system at all of its registration centres to tackle issues with overcrowding.
The queue management system will ensure that the first 150 applicants who arrive at the registration centres will be provided with “numbered chits”, according to the EC.
The first half of this number will be served from morning to early afternoon, while the second half will be asked to leave the centres and return in the afternoon when the registration process for the first batch has been completed.
The Association also called on the media, professional bodies and associations to be “ambassadors in a sustained effort to compliment all efforts made so far to ensure public health, safety and protection.”
Find the GBA’s statement here
