The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has revealed that psychiatric patients at the various mental health hospitals across the country would be allowed to register in the forthcoming biometric voter registration and subsequently vote on election day if only the doctors can confirm that they are mentally sound.
Dr Afari-Gyan said the Commission could not deny the right of the psychiatric patients to take part in the biometric voter registration when they had been declared sound by the doctors at the mental hospitals.
However, the EC boss said there would not be a registration centre (polling station) at the mental health hospitals. This, he said, was to avoid any possible destruction by those who were not yet declared sane by the doctors.
Dr. Afari-Gyan made this known at a one-day dialogue on the biometric voter registration with the clergy on the theme �enhancing the credibility of the 2012 election.�
According to Dr. Afari-Gyan, information reaching him indicated that 60 percent of the mental health patients at the psychiatric hospitals were of a sound mind to participate in the biometric voter registration and subsequently vote come December 7.
He said the Commission was deliberating with the management of the mental health hospitals to see how they could arrange to allow the mentally sound patients to participate in the upcoming biometric voter registration so that they could vote on election day.
He said the Commission would establish a review committee at every district to help resolve any challenges that arose at the registration centres (polling station). �Every political party representative will serve on the committee including the police, clergy and a person from the Ghana Education Service (GES),� he added.
Dr. Afari-Gyan said the Commission was also in discussion with the GES to release the teachers to help in the biometric registration exercise. �In areas where they will not be needed the Commission will not worry the GES but in the rural areas we can�t do without them�, he said.
It would be recalled that the GES stated that it would not be able to release the teachers to help in the biometric voter registration exercise, explaining that academic work would be disrupted if they were allowed to participate in the exercise, which starts on March 24.
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