The various political parties have their hands full at the moment. Seven days to general elections and they still do not have a complete voters’ register.
They are busily trying to get their hands on the document for remaining constituencies ahead of the polls on December 7.
Both soft and hard copies of the voters’ register has been made available to political parties. On the hard copy, you find the name, voter ID number, gender and age of the voter whereas; the soft copy contains all the information of the hard copy plus photographs of voters.
The PPP and CPP tell Joy News they have only received the Biometric Register for five and seven regions respectively.
According to PPP’s Deputy National Secretary, Paa Kow Ackom, the party is in receipt of registers for Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Brong Ahafo and Volta regions.
CPP political coordinator, Kweku Dadzie, indicates his party does not have the register for Ashanti, Eastern and Greater Accra regions.
The NPP also say they are nearly through, except for some constituencies in the Ashanti and Central regions whose register they are still awaiting.
Registration of minors is an issue of serious concern to the parties.
Paa Kow Ackom of PPP explained, “Just by looking at them, you can tell that these are children and you can also tell that these were organised because they seem to have the same house numbers and similar names.”
CPP’s Kweku Dadzie is hoping that “on the day of the elections, EC officials will work assiduously to ensure that these minors don’t come close to the polling stations.”
The Communications Director of CPP, Nii Armah Akomfrah, explains to Joy News the EC should have expunged the names of minors from the voters’ register. However, since the general elections are almost near, they are willing to make do with the list given them.
The electoral commission in reaction insists the distribution is on course.