Voter registration starts today
The Electoral Commission (EC) says it has deployed Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits and other logistics to its regional and district offices ahead of the voter registration exercise scheduled to start today
Other logistics deployed for the exercise include Turbonet devices, Registration Forms 1A and 1C, and laminators. The Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, said a total of 3,277 personnel had also been engaged for the 21-day exercise, which would end on May 27, 2024.
The exercise will be conducted in all 268 district offices of the EC, including Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe (SALL) in the Guan Constituency in the Oti Region.
The May 7 to May 27, 2024, registration is the EC’s regular voters’ registration exercise for the year ahead of the December 7 polls.
Ghana Card, Ghana Passport
Ghana Card and Ghana Passport are the only two identity documents qualified voters can use to register.
Chairperson of the EC Mrs Jean Mensa said the EC would open 775 registration centres in distant and riverine areas which are not close to the district offices, with registration mobile teams deployed to handle those communities.
Personnel
Giving a breakdown of the personnel, Mrs Mensa said 496 supervisors, 831 registration officers, 831 data entry clerks, technicians and laminators would be involved.
Mobile registration teams
For the mobile registration teams, Mrs Mensa said 228 registration supervisors, 228 registration officers, 228 data entry clerks and 228 laminators had been engaged.
Registration at 25 public universities
She said for the 25 public universities where registration would also take place, 25 registration officers, 25 data entry clerks and 25 laminators would be involved in the exercise.
She stated that generators have been secured to guarantee a smooth limited voter registration exercise scheduled for Tuesday, May 7, 2024, across the nation due to power crisis.
Mrs Mensa, announced that EC is making every effort to prevent any disruptions due to power challenges, commonly referred to as “dumsor.”
She further explained that the commission has arranged for all district offices to rent generators in case of power outages, these generators will kick in to ensure continuous voter registration services.
However, in the event of unforeseen circumstances, the EC has explained that its offices will switch to an “offline” mode, where voters will be registered manually, and their details will be stored on a pen drive.
“We are trying hard to, we’ve made arrangements to ensure that we don’t have challenges because of dumsor. What we’ve done is to have all our district offices rent generators so that in the event where there’s dumsor, that can kick in.
“However, should there be the unexpected, we would switch on to the offline and by offline it means the voters will be registered and their details will be put on a pen drive and that will be copied in our offices when the light returns, so the registration will not be disrupted.”
The upcoming limited voter registration exercise aims to register approximately 623,000 first-time voters across the country.
