Biometric Voter Registration Takes Off...Glitches Experienced In Some Areas

The much anticipated highly-awaited first-ever Biometric Voter Registration exercise has commenced in earnest across the country. Reports monitored by peacefmonline indicated that progress of registration was hampered and at some polling stations the process was completely stalled as the machines for the exercise encountered intermittent faults. As a result, the process which was supposed to start at 7:00am took off 10am in some polling stations. As at 10am, registration had not taken off on the University of Ghana campus due to a technical fault. Reports also filtering in from the Volta Region say there are no challenge and irregularity forms in the Volo areas in the North Tongu constituency. In all, 45 thousand EC officials will be deployed to the 7 thousand polling stations across the country. The 40-day Biometric Voter Registration exercise, is a complete replacement of the existing voters register, thus it would render any previous voter registration invalid for purposes of voting in the upcoming elections. The 40-day registration exercise will be held at the polling station levels with four polling stations coming together to form a cluster for the exercise. About 12 million eligible voters are expected to be registered in the nationwide biometric registration exercise. As part of measures to inject vigilance into the process, EC personnel, Commission members, agents of political parties and the media are monitor the exercise. Meanwhile, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) has categorically stated that the exercise would not be extended at the end of the period. �The EC will not entertain any appeal for extension,� he stressed and urged all potential electorate to take full advantage of the period allocated to their polling stations and register.