The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has appealed to the Electoral Commission (EC) to find pragmatic measures to various challenges that have characterized the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.
The challenges encountered include non-functional equipment and network hitches that have raised serious concerns among Ghanaians and stakeholders.
In an interview on Citi FM, Mustapha Gbande, Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, underscored the significance of addressing the challenges to exercise to restore public confidence in the Electoral Commission.
Mustapha Gbande said the EC as the body responsible for elections should ensure improvement in the availability and functionality of registration systems and machines.
“One would expect that an Electoral Commission which controls every aspect of registration in terms of systems and machines, should focus on improving the availability of such systems. I think that we are beginning to also record pockets of violence from NPP parliamentary candidates in some of the places, using thugs and all of that.
“We know that the police have been massively deployed to registration centres so we are wondering why issues of violence will occur at a registration centre. If the police have withdrawn and they want us to take our security into our own hands, they should let us know so that we can actively prepare for some of these atrocities. It is not in the right of anyone to go to a polling station and want to use thugs to beat people.”
Meanwhile, data released by the Electoral Commission revealed that the commission has registered 143,014 eligible Ghanaians as of Day 4 of the exercise. The commission hopes to register 623,000 persons by the end of the three-week exercise.
