The largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has called on the Electoral Commission to find lasting solutions to the challenges engulfing the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.
The Electoral Commission started a limited voter registration exercise from the 6th of May, 2024 to give opportunity for persons who turned 18 and those who couldn’t have their names captured during the last registration exercise.
However, the ongoing exercise has been characterised by a myriad of challenges which includes non functional BVRs and network challenges that last from the morning of the registration till later in the afternoon.
In an interview with Citi FM News, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Mustapha Gbande, underscored the essence of finding solutions to the challenges in order for Ghanaians to repose confidence in the Electoral Commission and the general electoral system.
Mustapha Gbande added that it is the prerogative of the Electoral Commission to ensure that priority is given to the proper functioning of the electoral equipment emphasising that the electoral machines ought to be available for the new voters to have their names captured in the commission’s system.
He said, "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 If the police have withdrawn and they want us to take our security into our own hands, they should let us know so that we can actively prepare for some of these atrocities.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.”
There were records of pockets of violence at the various registration centres.
The NDC have called the police service to be up and doing to ensure that, there is further mayhem during his exercise.
Source: Kobina Darlington/peacefmonline.com
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