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| Demonstration stage |
The Upper East Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Bruce Ayisi, says his outfit is adequately prepared for the smooth take off of the impending biometric voters registration expected to begin in March 24 to May 5. The much anticipated voter biometric exercise, he disclosed, will last for 40 days and would be carried out in four phases with each phase lasting for a maximum of ten days, weekends inclusive. Mr Ayisi made the disclosure at a media dialogue in Bolgatanga. According to Mr Ayisi, all necessary logistics and kits needed for the commencement of the exercise have been made readily available, whilst personnel recruited for the exercise are currently undergoing intensive practical training. The kits he however assured have been tried and tested and would serve its intended purpose. Mr Ayisi made it known that the first phase of the registration will begin on March 24 whilst phase two begins in April 4. The third phase of the registration will start on April 15 and end on April 24 with the final phase of the registration running from April 26 to May 5. Registration will be held at the polling station levels with four polling stations coming together to form a cluster for the registration. In the event of registration, eligible voters about the age of 18 and more would be required to produce their personal data with the aid of valid ID cards to prove their eligibility. These include existing voters ID card, National Health Insurance card, national passport, driver’s license or national identification card. Those without any of the valid ID cards will be requested to produce at least two guarantors, specifically a family member, and an elder in the community or an eligible voter. In a case of temporal and permanent trauma, fingers and other physical features of affected persons would be vehemently captured to help in easy identification. Mr. Ayisi later debunked widespread speculation that the kits used for the registration poses health hazards to applicants and appealed to the media to disabuse the minds of such persons since the kits has no health implications. He said the introduction of the biometric system has become necessary owing to public mistrust and confidence in the manual system of voting. it is also one of the surest ways of curtailing electoral malpractices. On the issue of transfer and proxy voting, Mr Ayisi said inputs needs to be provided to decide as to whether proxy and transfer voters would be allowed to exercise their franchise on the day of voting. Speaking to Radio Ghana, the deputy regional director of the EC, Mr Azu Bosco revealed that the EC as part of its campaign strategies have employ the services of public educators to intensify its awareness creation on the exercise. Mr Bosco implored the media to double their effort at educating the masses on electoral fraud to help ensure a peaceful electoral process. Personnel he said would team up with assembly members to educate people on the ground. Members of the media were later taken through the registration process by experts from Superlog Technology Limited (STL), a local company providing technical support for the biometric exercise.
GBC END IA/
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