Voter registration is a critical part of the electoral process. It ensures that eligible citizens who have turned 18 or failed to register in the previous in the country are afforded the opportunity to register in order to be eligible to vote in the next election.
The Electoral Commission of Ghana, is statutorily empowered to provide the electorate a platform to exercise their franchise through voter registration.
The EC announced last week that from Tuesday, September 12 to Monday, October 2, 2023, the Electoral Commission will open the voters register for the registration of new voters ahead of the District Level Elections.
As prelude to the polls, the EC will conduct three-week voter registration exercises and it will be done at the various district offices of the EC.
Addressing the press at a briefing dubbed “Let the Citizens Know,” Mrs Jean Mensa indicated that the 2023 district level elections (DLE) will take place in all the 6,272 electoral areas in all districts with the exception of Nkoranza North and South in the Bono East Region.
The Electoral Commission is hoping to register 1,350,000 new voters by the close of the Registration exercise this year.
Expectedly, seven political parties in the country, are unhappy with the decision by the EC to restrict the upcoming voter registration exercise to its district offices.
According to the political parties, such a move would disenfranchise a number of Ghanaians who have attained the voting age.
The parties are: the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Convention People’s Party (CPP), People’s National Congress (PNC), All Progressives Congress (APC), National Democratic Party (NDP), and the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP).
As a newspaper, we recognize the independence of the Commission, but it must take on board the reservations of the political parties.
The Commission should look into the possibility of expanding the registration centres to cover all the electoral areas and deploy more machines and workers to administer the process seamlessly.
Should the Commission stick to its decision, it will inhibit potential voters from exercising their political right as guaranteed in the 1992 Constitution.
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