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The running mate to the opposition New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said the Electoral Commission is practically disenfranchising eligible first time voters with its handling of the registration of students on the various university campuses in the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.

He argued that the insufficient number of registration centers on university campuses nationwide is making it difficult for students to get their names unto the electoral roll.


The University Students Association of Ghana (USAG), have also accused the EC of essentially disenfranchising eligible students with its handling of the registration exercise on the various campuses. 

The Commission set a 10-day period for the exercise which is set to end on Sunday May 8, but USAG says less than 10 percent of eligible student voters have been able to register.

Speaking after observing the registration exercise at the University of Ghana, Legon campus on Wednesday, Dr. Bawumia stated that the EC will fall way below its target of registering 8,000 people on the campus.

All though he acknowledged the current circumstances were not deliberate, he intimated that the inaction of the EC was effectively disenfranchising students.

“Five days you have been able to do 400 and you are talking about 8000 potential people and so this is really a practical disenfranchisement of the people. You are disenfranchising students practically. If you say you are not doing so intentionally but practically you are doing so.”

Dr. Bawumia echoed the calls of frustrated students saying the EC could rectify the situation by simply increasing the number of registration centres on the various campuses.

“…And so if we don’t want to disenfranchise people, we need to bring in adequate or a few more registration centers to cater for the population and I think this is what has been missed… I would like to encourage the Electoral Commission to do what is right, to bring in a few more registration centers on Legon campus and anywhere else where this sort of go-slow is pertaining.”

The EC plans to rotate the registration centres on the campus beyond the first phase of the exercise, but Dr. Bawumia is not convinced this intervention would work because in his view, a considerable number of students would still not be registered per his calculations.

“If out of a potential conservative figure of 8,000, you have done 400 in five days. Now if you extend it for another 5 days, you are only going to do another 400. It is not sufficient,” he insisted.