The Electoral Commission (EC) says it is on course to meet the target it set out for itself at the commencement of the ongoing voter registration exercise
The commission set out an ambitious target to register 1,350,000 eligible voters but revised the target to 52 per cent which translates into about 700,000 registrants.
At the ‘Let the Citizens Know’ media series in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Corporate Service at the EC, Dr Eric Asare Bossman, said the exercise has so far been successful.
“You may recall at the beginning of the registration exercise that we recorded low numbers due to some teething problems. However, those issues were resolved in a matter of days.
“We are happy to note that the number of registrations have gone up considerably. We are currently averaging 50,000 registrations per day since last week, and this is very remarkable.
“To date, we have registered 673,276. The commission is within a striking distance of the targeted 700,000 persons to be registered in this exercise,” he said.
Of the numbers, the Ashanti Region leads with 111,593 registrations representing 16.6 per cent with the Greater Accra Region in second with 90,099 registrations representing 13.4 per cent.
The Savannah Region per the data has recorded the fewest registration with 16,045 representing 2.4 per cent and the Ahafo Region placing second from bottom with 17,210 registrations representing 2.6 per cent.
“However, in real terms or when you adjust the total number of registered voters in this ongoing exercise by the total registrations in 2020 then clearly the Ashanti and Greater Accra regions are lagging behind,” with minus 1.1 per cent and 7.3 per cent respectively.
“Of the regions that have increased their figures in real terms, the Northern Region leads with 1.6 per cent, followed by the Upper East with 1.1 per cent then Volta Region with one per cent and Eastern Region with 0.7,” Dr Bossman said.
On gender basis, he said, more males were registering compared to their female counterparts; noticeable in all the regions except in the North East and Upper West where females outnumber males by 60 and 14 respectively.
“Nationally, the males constitute 52 per cent and the females are 48 per cent. The Oti Region has the highest percentage of registered males and the lowest percentage of registered females at 54.5 per cent and 45.5 per cent respectively.”
In total, he said the eligibility of 7,561 people to register as voters in the exercise has been challenged.
By the 16th day of registration, we had recorded 7,561 challenged cases in all the registration centres. This constitutes 1.12 per cent of all the registered voters. In nominal terms, the Greater Accra Region tops with 1,552 cases and the North East region is bottom with 14 cases.
“However, in real terms, the Upper West Region leads with 444 constituting 1.9 per cent of registered voters in the region. Other regions with more challenged cases also are the Savannah and Volta regions with 1.8 and 2.3 per cent respectively.”
He announced that the replacement of missing Voter ID cards would begin on the 3rd of October in all district offices. The fee is GH¢10 and the payment is through a short code that will be made available to the public soon.
The ongoing exercise which comes to an end on October 2 would not be the last registration exercise before the general elections. We will roll out another round of continuous registration exercise in 2024 in our district offices and also register people in the difficult-to-reach communities in selected electoral areas,” he assured.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
