Ghana: 21 days Voters register exhibition exercise opens July 18

The exhibition of the Voter Register is to be opened from July 18 to August 7, 2016, to enable all voters to check their names in the register, the Electoral Commission (EC) has announced. The exhibition would take place in all 29,000 polling stations across the country. This year’s exhibition would last for 21 days instead of the usual 14 days, Mr Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, Head of Communications at the EC, said at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday. The conference addressed by Mr Dzakpasu and Mr Samuel Tettey, Director of Electoral Services, was also attended by Mr Alhassan Yusif Ayuba, Assistant Head of Communications. Mr Dzakpasu said the exhibition would also provide the opportunity for correction of the dates on the cards of less than 100 people whose cards were dated wrongly as a result of system errors during the limited voter registration exercise held in April this year.

He said the exhibition would allow all voters to check that their names are in the register, while verifying their details on the voters register, correct errors and omissions and objections to unqualified persons including minors, foreigners, persons of unsound mind and persons who registered with NHIS cards in 2012 but whose details may not have been captured in the list presented to the Supreme Court.

Mr Dzakpasu said at an Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting held on Tuesday, IPAC endorsed the EC’s modalities for carrying out a smooth exhibition of the Provisional Voters Register and that the Commission would provide copies of the provisional register to the political parties.

He said the EC would also provide the Parties with the list of all 29,000 polling/ exhibition centres. In a related development, EC says the Public Elections Regulation (C.I. 94), before Parliament on July 8, 2016 would mature after 21 sitting days.

The Commission has, therefore, agreed with IPAC to provide copies of the new CI 94, which introduces new key changes. The new law has now clearly spelt out duties of a Returning Officer, while specifying offences by the electoral officers and made provisions for sanctions for election officials who act in violation of the regulations.

In the event that a duly registered voter’s fingerprints have been rejected by the Biometric Verification Device, the new law has made provision for manual verification of that voter. In the event of a disruption of polling at any specific polling station on Election Day, the law makes provisions on the specific steps to be followed by the election officials and for adjournment of polls.

The law also makes provision of Special Voting for specific groups including election officials, security personnel and media personnel accredited by the National media Commission. Meanwhile, all political Parties have restated their commitment towards holding the elections on November 7, 2016 subject to the final decision to be taken by Parliament on the law, the EC said.