The Electoral Commission (EC) has issued a stern warning to individuals and political party agents against causing any disruptions or disturbances during the ongoing Limited Voter Registration Exercise.
This warning comes after three individuals, Abass Abukari, George Vinor, and Abdul Karim, were arrested by the Ghana Police Service at Tepa in the Ashanti Region on Wednesday for allegedly disrupting the registration process and causing disturbances. They are currently in police custody, assisting with investigations.
According to the Ashanti Regional EC boss, Benjamin Bannor Bio, security personnel have been deployed to the various registration centers and will not hesitate to deal with individuals or groups who attempt to disrupt the process. “They will not even allow them to get closer to our centers as we indicated in Tepa, and we will not leave any stone unturned to ensure that the right people are registered. I can assure you, we will not also permit anybody to try to adversely affect the smooth process of our registration exercise.”
Meanwhile, the Commission is resorting to the offline registration process as a backup for the internet and technical challenges that have affected the process. “The commission issues a directive that we go offline. We will be using offline until the connectivity issue is restored,” said Benjamin Bannor Bio.
In a related development, the Majority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo Markin, has expressed concern over ongoing network issues affecting the limited voter registration exercise in the Effutu constituency in the Central Region. “The frustration and the delays must be addressed. So I am urging the Electoral Commission to ensure that they have a backup system. We are told that previously they used to have a system where even when the network was down, they had an offline system which was readily available for registration. So that when the system comes up, it picks immediately. I am told that the new system is a bit cumbersome. So if they can work at it and ensure that they have an effective offline system which will allow for registration when the network is down, because as of now, the frustrations are one too many.”
