EC to give first-time voters chance to register ahead of Nov polls

Voter reg

The Electoral Commission is considering setting aside a day for first-time eligible voters who could not get to add their names to the electoral register in the last limited voter’s registration exercise to do so.

Sources close to the Commission told Onua 95.1FM that a committee that was tasked to look into the issue met the EC last Friday and recommended that a day is set aside for all such persons and others who qualify to vote to register in order to vote in the November 7 general elections.

According to the sources, the decision is subject to the approval or otherwise of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), which is expected to meet at the end of the month to make the final decision on the matter.

Hundreds of Ghanaians who have turned 18 years as well as those who could not register during the previous registration in 2012, could not get register in the last limited voter’s registration exercise which took place between April 28 and May 8, 2016.

They blamed their inability to register on long queues as a result of the slow pace of the exercise. In some university campuses, a large number of students could not register because they were writing examination at the time.

The development caused the University Students Association of Ghana threaten a lawsuit against the Electoral Commission if it failed to extend the duration of the exercise to enable the affected students in the various campuses to register.

The National Union of Ghana Students also issued similar threats.

But the sources say the concerns are being considered by the EC subject to the approval by the IPAC.

However, the sources say if IPAC does not approve of the registration for it to come off before the second week of August, then the affected persons cannot be able to register to take part in the November 7 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile the Electoral Commission clarified that the ongoing registration exercise is exclusively for those whose names were deleted based on the Supreme Court’s order.

The Court had ruled that all those who used National Health Insurace cards as proof of identity to register to vote in the 2012 elections should be deleted. It followed the court’s declaration of the cards as void in the registration process.

By Nhyiraba Opoku |3news.com|Ghana

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