EC needs to work on its registration processes - Volta NDC

The Volta Regional branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the challenges encountered during the piloting of the Biometric Voters Registration kits have to be worked on by Electoral Commission (EC) for the compilation of a new register.

Speaking at a press conference in Ho at the end of the pilot exercise yesterday, the Volta Regional Secretary of the NDC, Mr James Gunu, said the EC must listen to key stakeholders else it was going to disappoint Ghanaians if it proceeded with those challenges.

"The EC cannot insist on compiling a new voters register. They must listen to the voice of the people.

Observations

Mr Gunu stated that the two-day observation of the process revealed that before the commencement of the exercise last Tuesday, the technicians struggled to log onto the system until after a phone call from the head office in Accra for direction.

He said the filling of the form 1A took an unduly long period after which the applicants had to wait for a considerable length of time for their data to be entered.

"It was also observed that the EC's form 1A has no serial number and so can be compromised at any time,” he added.

"Indeed, we take cognisance of the fact that this exercise is a mere test run and not the actual registration but isn't that the very reason why every document used in this pilot exercise should replicate exactly what will be used in the registration proper?" he quizzed.

Mr Gunu also said the final ID card was not serially numbered and that there were three digits generated randomly which did not follow any logical sequence or pattern compared to the previous 10 digits of the existing voter ID.

COVID-19

Mr Gunu said the EC's registration centre was not disinfected, hence the area was prone to the spread of coronavirus to applicants.

He said the applicants who went through the process thumb-printed on the same ink pad, a situation which he said was a breach of the COVID-19 protocols.

He said the EC's new voter registration pilot exercise, with its attendant technical challenges and COVID-19 vulnerabilities, was an undisputed evidence that the EC was both ill-prepared and time-constrained to effectively compile a new voters register for the December 2020 general election.