EC Will Not Extend Registration Exercise � Sylvia Annor

Principal Public Relations Officer of the Electoral Commission has stated the Commission is not contemplating on extending the just ended voters� registration exercise. Sylvia Annor said the period given was well enough for any applicant to register to enable him or her vote in future national elections. Some persons who had turned 18 and many older ones were allegedly denied their registration rights during the 10-day exercise, which ended Wednesday. Despite the several complains, the PRO maintained the exercise was successful considering the limited time frame of 10 days. Mrs. Annor told Joy News Wednesday evening that there may be an opportunity before the 2016 general elections. Therefore, all those who for one reason or the other could not register now may have the opportunity in the near future, she indicated. The reason for the exercise, she explained was to expand the voters register to be used also for the District Assembly elections later on. �Legally, we�re supposed to have registration before an election and that is precisely what we have done,� she said. Most of the centres visited by Joy News� Joseph Opoku Gakpo recorded low turn outs with others being denied the opportunity to register at the last hour but Mrs. Annor insisted it was premature to start analyzing the numbers now. Member of Parliament for Manhyia North, Collins Owusu Amankwah also raised concerns about the registration exercise, saying, the identity cards issued to some applicants had data inconsistencies while others presented passports with pictures, which did not match their faces. According to him, the CI72 was passed due to some of these major challenges affecting the country�s electoral system including multiple registrations and voting as well as voting by unqualified persons. Asked if he had filed any official complaint, Mr. Amankwah answered: �As it stands now; we are still on our way to make a formal petition to the Electoral Commission at the Regional office.� He said the EC PRO had heard about the issue but they (MP and his people) were yet to officially file a complaint. The MP claimed that the turn out in his constituency was impressive except for the inconsistencies in the generation of the voter ID numbers. A member of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers, Abraham Mensah also told Joy News the exercise has seen an improvement over that of 2012. He said broken biometric machines were quickly repaired or replaced and there were no major incidents of violence as witnessed in 2012. He added there was also an improvement in the behaviours of registration officers.