EC suspends pilot registration exercise

The Electoral Commission (EC) has called off the piloting of the voters’ registration exercise in the Western Region over what it says are technical challenges.

The EC embarked on a two-day exercise to pilot the compilation of a new register after it said the existing biometric equipment were outdated.

According to the electoral management body, the piloting was to allow them to identify challenges with their systems and fix them before the mass registration begins later this month.

But on the second and last day of the piloting, it said it can no longer go ahead with the exercise in the Western Region due to some hitches.

The Western Regional Director for the EC, Angelina Tagoe, however, could not provide further details on why the exercise was cancelled.

The Western Regional Secretary for the opposition NDC, Joseph Nelson, said his party’s long-held opinion that the EC is not fit to undertake a nationwide exercise had been vindicated.

“If the Electoral Commission cannot organise a simple pilot exercise in a city like Sekondi, how much more in a village, like Mumuni camp?

“The EC has simply failed and are not ready to compile a new register with just six months to general elections,” he told Accra based Starr FM in an interview, monitored by theghanareport.com.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Regional Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the region, Rex Johnfiah, expressed his disappointment in the turn of the event.

He called for an extension of the exercise.

“We want the EC to extend the exercise because what we observed was that there were no backups,” he revealed.