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The University of Ghana Students’ Representative Council (SRC), has revealed that nearly 80 percent of their students eligible to vote in the November polls were unable to register in the just ended limited voters’ registration exercise.

According to the SRC President, David Ohene Fobih, out of the over 8,000 students aged 18 years and above, only about 1,552 of them were successfully registered.

Two registration centres were added to the initial one following incessant calls on the Electoral Commission by the SRC, but this did not translate into the registration of more students.

According to the SRC, less than 20 percent of the expected registrants registered in the exercise. 

“By the close of registration on Sunday, we had 1,552 students which is less than 20 percent of the number that we expected to register,” Mr. Fobih stated in an interview with Citi News.

The SRC President added that their concerns had been forwarded to the EC and are waiting for a reply from them.

“The EC is talking about it and is talking about what action to take but as to the exact action that they want to take, they have not communicated to anyone. I am just hoping that by close of day, the EC would have come out to communicate something better to us.”

EC disenfranchising eligible students

The University Students Association of Ghana (USAG), threatened a lawsuit against the EC accusing them of essentially disenfranchising eligible students with its handling of the registration exercise on the various campuses.

USAG had threatened to drag the Commission to court if they did not extend the duration of the exercise to enable more students on university campuses to register.

According to them, half way through the registration exercise, less than 10 percent of eligible student voters had been able to register, hence their call for the extension.

But their calls for extension may not be endorsed as the EC has described that as unnecessary, explaining that they have registered 92 percent of prospective voters.