EC detects discrepancies in Special Voting list

The Electoral Commission (EC) says it has detected inconsistencies in the list of special voters which could disenfranchise some voters.

The Central Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Philomena Adusei said the list of voters given to the EC in the region for instance had on it names of people who were to vote in other regions.

She was speaking at a meeting at the Central Regional Coordinating Council in Cape Coast on Thursday.

The meeting was to afford the various heads of departments the opportunity to brief the coordinating council on their activities to help forge the way forward for the region.

Mrs Adusei said her office for instance detected that there were several voters particularly of the security agencies whose names were given as being expected to vote in the Central region but who by their voter identity information were not in the region.

She explained that the error might have occurred because the security agencies might not have indicated where each voter would vote.

Implications

“If you don’t find your name in the region where you are, on the day of special voting, you can’t vote and you cannot also vote in the main election because your name will not be in the register,” she pointed out.

She said the EC had contacted some of the affected voters to rectify the situation but “some could not be reached.”

Mrs Adusei called on the heads of the security agencies to collaborate with the EC in Accra to help resolve all such discrepancies before the special voting day saying they had two weeks to do these corrections.

Ballots being printed

He said the EC was 80 percent ready to conduct the elections saying after all the corrections made the EC had begun printing the ballot papers.

She said the Central region had 2482 polling stations and added that she was optimistic that voting would be peaceful.

She said the EC had already given all flash points to the police and the military.

Avoid Violence

The Central Regional Minister, Mr Kweku Ricketts Hagan called on all to help to ensure a peaceful general election and especially the youth to desist from violence.

On education he said government had allocated 14 new Senior High School (SHS) to increase access to quality education.

He said the Kotokuraba market project was almost complete saying but for considerations to add an abattoir to the facility, it would have be inaugurated for use.