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The Electoral Commission will from tomorrow, Friday, July 10, 2020, deploy registration officials to various Senior High Schools across the country to capture eligible voters onto the new electoral roll and also issue them their ID cards.
The decision was communicated to political parties after an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Thursday, July 9, 2020.
The development comes after some members of the public raised concerns about the exclusion of SHS students from the ongoing voter registration exercise.
It had been argued that, with most of the students camped in their various schools and a rule for all students to remain within the school premises and no visitor entertained, eligible students may be disenfranchised.
But an official statement by the electoral management body issued today, Thursday, July 9, 2020, indicated that the two-exercise which ends on Saturday, July 11, 2020, is scheduled to be rolled out in senior high schools without registration centres.
“The Electoral Commission wishes to inform the general public that, it will embark on a two-day registration exercise for all eligible Senior High School students across the country. This registration will take place in all Senior High Schools that do not have polling stations (registration centres) within the schools,” the EC said.
Additionally, all students who are 18 years and above and are eligible for the card have been asked to present their National Identification Card (Ghana Card) or Ghana Passport for the registration process.
Those without any of these two requirements are being advised to make use of the guarantor system.
There had been earlier suggestions that the EC should set up stations in the various schools to register students but that action was not taken immediately.
The EC, however, says additional days will be announced when it becomes necessary to ensure that all eligible applicants are registered.
There is also an assurance from the Commission that all COVID-19 safety protocols will be observed to safeguard both students and registration officials.
This decision is illegal -NDC
Meanwhile, the Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Peter Boamah Otukonor has raised concerns about the arrangement.
He believes that the decision is illegal.
“As you may already know, some of the schools are registration centres already and they have been gazetted so the ones that are not registration centres and have not been gazetted, any registration that is conducted on those campuses are null and void and it creates problems. Now they’ve explained that they are going to add those registrations that they will do on the campuses to the nearby registration centres. How can you do that? If you are doing normal registration at the centre and you think it’s nearby the school, why don’t you let the students move there to go and register?”, he quizzed.
Source: citinewsroom.com
