The limited voter registration campaign in all 268 commission districts will begin today, Tuesday, May 7, and run through Monday, May 27, 2024, according to a statement released by the Electoral Commission (EC).
At a press conference held in Accra yesterday, EC Chair Jean Mensa revealed that the country’s 25 public universities and 785 electoral regions would host the 21-day exercise.
She noted that all political parties have been informed of the EC’s operations in accordance with its norms, with the exception of the locations that have been gazetted with a movement plan, so they can organise and get their agents ready to watch the registration process around the country.
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She claims that the EC has projected that 623,000 additional people will register for the exercise in addition to the 910,000 new people who registered in 2023—a number that far surpassed the 723,000 target.
According to Madam Mensa, the large number of students living on campus had a factor in the selection of the 25 public universities.
According to her, day-end reports and daily statistics can be printed from the exercise registration kits.
She said that the political parties could find out how many people had registered in each centre on any particular day if they were interested.
Additionally, Madam Mensa stated that the EC has added backup generators at its district offices in case there are power disruptions during the exercise.
She revealed that when electricity is restored in the various districts, police have also been instructed to go offline, register new registrants, and then record them in their database.
She emphasised that the EC has chosen appropriate competitive bidding as the method of procurement, which has helped it to obtain value for money for its logistics and materials. She said that over the course of the months, the EC has invested a significant amount of time in obtaining its materials and logistics for the registration exercise and the election as a whole.
Additionally, Madam Mensa denied claims that the EC hired people who were supplied by the regional district and municipal chief executives.
The speaker expressed her happiness at having hired returning officers and deputy returning officers for all 268 district offices around the country. The officers would be identified by their names, voter ID cards, Ghana cards and residential addresses.
According to the EC chair, Ghanaians who are of sound mind and are eighteen years of age or older are eligible.
She cautioned minors not to try to register at any of the centres and stated that anyone discovered to have broken the regulations will face legal action.
She revealed that 3,277 employees, both temporary and permanent, will play a variety of tasks in the voter registration drive.
Saturdays and Sundays will be included in the registration. Depending on the size of the districts and the anticipated number of registered voters to show up, all district offices would have fixed teams, ranging from two to three teams, she noted.
In order to register eligible candidates, mobile teams have also been sent to select catchment regions between electoral areas, according to the head of the EC.
She said that all political parties would have access to the identities and photos of all returning officers and their deputies.
