The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has urged the Electoral Commission (EC) to address various challenges encountered during the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.
These challenges include non-functional equipment and network issues which have raised concerns among stakeholders.
In an interview, Mustapha Gbande, Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, emphasised the importance of resolving the challenges confronting the exercise to restore confidence in the Electoral Commission.
Gbande highlighted the expectation that the EC, being responsible for all aspects of registration, should prioritise improving the availability and functionality of registration systems and machines.
“One would expect that an Electoral Commission which controls every aspect of registration in terms of systems and machines, should focus on improving the availability of such systems. I think that we are beginning to also record pockets of violence from NPP parliamentary candidates in some of the places, using thugs and all of that.
“We know that the police have been massively deployed to registration centres so we are wondering why issues of violence will occur at a registration centre. If the police have withdrawn and they want us to take our security into our own hands, they should let us know so that we can actively prepare for some of these atrocities. It is not in the right of anyone to go to a polling station and want to use thugs to beat people.”
Meanwhile, data released by the Electoral Commission reveals that the commission has so far registered 143,014 eligible Ghanaians as of Day 4 of the registration. The commission is hoping to register 623000 persons by the end of the three-week exercise.
