Voter registration: Taking details of registrants unlawful – EC warns political parties

The Electoral Commission (EC) has urged political party agents at voter registration centres to halt the collation of registrant details.

At a press conference on Monday, it warned that recording the details of newly registered persons was “unlawful”.

“The picking of information on the ID card by the party people; this is causing a lot of challenges at the registration centres and at times leading scuffles between applicants as well as the agents,” said Samuel Tettey, a Deputy Chairman of the EC.

As the voter registration exercise enters its third week, the Commission, however, did not indicate what sanctions will be meted out to agents still recording the details of prospective voters.

But Mr. Tettey said, “political parties should educate their agents very well at the registration centre.”

He also noted the parties are given daily reports of persons registered at various registration centres.

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) raised concerns with this issue after the first week of the registration exercise.

Its observers reported that at some registration centres, when political party agents tried to down the registration details of registered applicants, some confrontations broke out.

Most of the tensions have involved part agents of Ghana’s two main political parties; the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress.

CODEO noted that registered voters were accosted when the refused to give out information on their voter ID cards to political party agents.

“The practice of party agents collecting voter information on newly-issued voter ID cards after a person has registered should stop as there are other mechanisms for political parties to collect information about the registration process,” it warned.

Source:Fiilafmonline/CitiNews