Youth Bridge Foundation (YBF)has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to extend the voter registration process to cater for first-time voters who could not partake in the process due to the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations.
The Foundation said they were also unhappy with the short notice and fragmented nature of communicating the registration’s calendar to voters.
This was contained in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency and signed by Mr. Seth Oteng, the Executive Director of the Foundation.
The statement said the EC’s effort in using less than three days to inform the public about such an important activity would definitely lead to logistical challenges.
“If affected voters knew well in advance when the mop-up exercise was scheduled and exactly which centres have been included in the exercise, such voters would have no excuses not to be ready for the exercise”, he said.
The statement commended the EC’s decision to carry out a mop-up Biometric Voter Registration exercise in 187 centres in eight of the ten regions and called on youth groups, particularly those who for various reasons would have otherwise been disenfranchised to register.
He caution the youth not to abuse the privilege by indulging in double registration as they risk being disqualified to vote and appealed to all well-meaning Ghanaians, media, civil society and development partners to continue to monitor the process more closely to ensure the success of the elections.**
Source: GhanaWeb
