Electoral Commission in the eye of the storm

Voter registration exercise is the heartbeat of any successful election anywhere in the world, but in Ghana the Jean Mensah led Electoral Commission (EC), wants Ghana’s election to suffer a heart attack as a result of the decision to restrict the upcoming limited voter registration exercise to its district offices
This is despite the fact that some political parties, as well as Civil Society Organisations, have raised issues about the decision for the EC, to restrict the registration at only its district offices.
The political parties, having realized that persuasion has failed to yield any results, have proceeded to the Supreme Court to file a suit against the election management body.
A private citizen and no registered voter by name Ayitah Precious from Otsebleku in the Greater Accra Region, last Friday obtained an interlocutory injunction against the EC from going ahead with its planned limited voter registration exercise expected to commence on Tuesday 12 September 2023
According to her, she cannot afford the cost of moving from my residence at Otsebleku to the EC district office at Prampram to register
In the considered opinion of this newspaper, much as the Electoral Commission is an independent body and is not subject to the control of any political party, EC is not unaware that potential voters, will have to travel miles, even some have to cross lakes and rivers to get to one of the 268-district offices of the EC.
In some of the district offices, going by the numbers of new voters the EC intend to register, some will show up as early as 7am, get spent in the scorching heat of the sun or rain as we are in the raining season and leave unattended by the time the registration closes.
As it is with the registration, a couple of vain trips to any of the district offices to register may push many to drop out. They will drop out in frustration.
It is no secret that the conceptualization and execution of electoral fraud is more expertly done at the level of compilation of voters register. This explains why the public’s alarm bells are ringing.
The electoral body under Jean Mensah, should not be too concerned with self-glorification over what it has done. It should be more mindful of the delicate shades in all it is expected to do.