Limited Voter Registration: Low turnout as rain disrupts exercise at some centres

A ten-day limited voter registration exercise by the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has begun on a predictably low turn-out note.

Most Ghanaians often prefer to wait until the deadline for registration draws closer.

The EC hopes to register about 1.2 million people as it opened the register, Thursday, April 27 at more than 3,000 polling centers across the country.

In the Volta region, scores of first-time voters at the Ketu South and Anlo constituencies were unable to register due to a heavy rainfall which disrupted the exercise.

The exercise was halted at the various polling centres due to the heavy downpour in most parts of the region, Joy News Ivy Setordzie reported.

And some prospective voters were turned back as they did not have the either requisite identification or guarantors.

At the Asawase constituency in the Ashanti region, many young men and women are unable to complete the process because they do not have guarantors.

About 300 registrations are expected to be done in the 594 polling centres in the region.

Joy News' Erastus Asare Donkor reported that some participants showed up at the polling stations with National Health Insurance Cards, which is unacceptable. They had to be turned back home to get guarantors.

Although a voter's ID card is mainly for electoral identification purpose, some of the newly eligible voters confessed there are non-electoral considerations in turning up for the exercise.

"I want to engage in mobile money business and that is why I am here to register, a participant told Joy News.

"I wasn't interested in the exercise. My sister convinced me to come," another said adding the card will help her get a passport.

At the God's Way polling centre in the Eastern region, the exercise was disrupted after a scuffle erupted between some National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters.

Joy News' Kofi Siaw reported that the NDC supporters prevented some people from registering, claiming they were minors who were being forced by some NPP members to register.

But Kofi Siaw said nerves were calmed by police officers who were at the center.

At some polling stations in the Ahanta West Constituency in the Western Region, people have reportedly not been able to register as the biometric verification machines have broken down.

NPP Constituency organizer in Ahanta West, Kwesi Tawiah, told Joy News many people have left the polling stations after waiting for hours.

The Korle Klottey constituency in the Greater Accra region has also recorded a low turnout.

The NDC parliamentary candidate for Korle Klottey, Dr. Zanetor Rawlings is reported to have registered in the exercise.

- www.myjoyonline.com