The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has urged the Electoral Commission (EC) to improve its communication efforts to address the challenges encountered during the first day of the voter registration exercise.
CODEO’s concern follows numerous challenges encountered during the voter registration exercise, particularly network issues leading to frustrations among voters.
In an interview with Citi News, the Team Leader for Elections, Anti-Corruption, and Rule of Law at CODEO, Gilfred Asiamah, asserted that the EC should communicate concisely in the coming days to avoid further difficulties.
Gilfred Asiamah pointed out that certain observers deployed to oversee voter registration at various centres recorded shortcomings. Specifically, they were not given timely updates on the alterations made during the registration exercise. He therefore encouraged the EC to address these challenges to prevent any difficulties in the coming days.
He said, “The commission acknowledged the challenge on the first day. We are hoping that these challenges will not prevail. The alternative plans they made to ensure that people who do not have access to power will be able to work. I think those things we have to follow and make sure that the commission does it well.
“Last, we also need the commission to communicate clearly on any changes that happen in terms of their movement. We have realised that in a few cases, the observers were proactive. They went to the district office of the commission only to realise that some of their initial plans for the commission had changed. We need the commission to communicate clearly.
“In the future we also need the commission to add a human face to some of the press releases. They came out yesterday to acknowledge the network challenges but it wasn’t just a technical network challenge. We had hundreds of people, thousands of people across the country in queue for hours. And I think the next time they communicate; it will be better to address the challenges that they face”.
Meanwhile, in line with CODEO’s objective to promote transparency, Gilfred Asiamah indicated that their observers deployed at the various registration centres will continue to do their work to ensure an effective and credible registration exercise.
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