Former President and flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has urged all eligible voters, especially, first-timers who encountered challenges on the first day of the nationwide limited voters registration exercise not to give up.

“It wasn’t a good start to the registration exercise today, but be encouraged to register for change. Don’t let the frustrations stop you from visiting the Electoral Commission (EC) office and the selected Electoral Areas again tomorrow to be registered,” he said.

Mr Mahama said this in a post on his Facebook wall to encourage all eligible voters who could not register at the start of the voter registration exercise, which started last Tuesday, due to technical challenges to do so.

“Ghana needs your vote on December 7. Get registered to vote Mahama and the NDC,” he said.

Recall
The voter registration exercise took off after 12 noon last Tuesday following a system failure which thwarted the start of the exercise across the country. Many of the registration centres, primarily limited to the district offices of the EC, recorded minimal figures as many prospective registrants had left by the time the registration system was fixed.

Before then, scenes of chaos and frustration had characterised the registration centres over the malfunctioning system, which prompted a high-level technical meeting of the EC to resolve the issue.

Prospective registrants who were left frustrated by the situation had to leave the centres without going through the processes to get their names onto the voter register. 

EC
A statement issued by the EC attributed the situation to “technical challenges with internet connectivity in a number of our centres”. It said the challenge was eventually resolved, and that “the registration exercise is proceeding smoothly in almost all the registration centres nationwide”.

The Director of Electoral Services at the EC headquarters, Dr Serebour Quaicoe in an interview said the technical challenges had been resolved and the exercise was going on smoothly.

He said the exercise is for 21 days and the commission’s target is to register 623,000 eligible persons, reiterating that the exercise was meant for persons who have turned 18 and others who could not register the last time (2023).

Visit
Visits to some registration centres by the Daily Graphic, in the Greater Accra Region revealed that the exercise was going smoothly. The running mate of the flag bearer of the NDC, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, who visited the Ayawaso West Wuogon Centre and the University of Professional Studies, Accra, yesterday expressed satisfaction about the exercise.

However, she bemoaned last Tuesday’s technical challenges that nearly marred the start of the exercise.