The Electoral Commission’s mass voter registration exercise will end tomorrow, Thursday, August 6, 2020.
The exercise started on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, and currently in its final phase.
A mop-up exercise may be conducted on a needs basis, according to the Electoral Commission.
A total of 15,117,438 prospective voters have so far been registered after 31 days of the registration exercise exceeding the EC’s target.
Out of the number of persons registered so far, the Greater Accra Region has the most registrants with 3,225,508 voters.
The Ashanti region comes second with 2,700,805 registrations and the Eastern Region coming third with 1,444,274 registrants.
Social distancing issues at registration centers improving
There was concern about the lack of adherence to COVID-19 preventive protocols such as social distancing and proper wearing of face masks at some at registration centres when the exercise began.
But the Electoral Commission took pragmatic steps to ensure that the social distancing protocol was adhered to.
“We’ve had a few issues with social distancing, but it keeps improving by the day. Day 1, looking at the larger picture, for most places it was okay, but for some, we had to bring in the police to assist in that direction. We just hope and believe that in the coming days it is going to be better,” the acting Head of Public Affairs of the Commission, Sylvia Annor said.
According to her, registration officers assigned to the various centres are to create markings on the floor that will ensure social distancing.
Low turnout recorded as registration enters last phase
The last phase of the voter registration exercise is witnessing a low turnout at some centres in Accra.
During a visit to some of the centres in Accra, only a few registrants were seen participating in the exercise.
One gentleman who spoke to Citi News said, “I just came here and I think everything is fine. I don’t know if its the coronavirus that is causing everyone to keep quiet but it is perfect over here.”
“I have just one problem with the process. The problem is that we have ECOWAS cards here. Why don’t they take these cards, slot it into a machine so they can have the same information they need instead of taking a picture? At least this would save us from the headache we are going through to take the picture.”
“Right now, we don’t have work to do so imagine if I had something little to do that can put food on my table, I would be wasting that time here,” a second gentleman complained
