Limited Voter Registration: Address Network Challenges – Mahama Tells EC

Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has urged the Electoral Commission (EC) to address network challenges in the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.

The former president made the call after visiting the EC headquarters to assess the registration process.

“This is day 4 of the exercise, and we have been receiving reports from the various district offices. Today, I decided to go around and see for myself. I understand there are five districts here, and there’s a lot of congestion.

“People are coming from all over to register at one point. The second thing I have noticed, and the complaint, is that the network is not strong. And so they are not able to use the instant online registration. And so they are capturing some data offline. The danger is that sometimes there’s a repeat of somebody’s name, not of his/hers,” he said.

Mahama urged the EC to speak with telecom companies to resolve the network bottleneck and allow faster registration.

He also called on the EC to consider opening more centres to reduce congestion.

“I have spoken to many young people who have turned 18 years, and they don’t have Ghana cards. It means that if we had insisted on the Ghana Card as the only means of registration, it means all these young people I have seen would not have been able to register,” he indicated.

Mahama’s call comes amid concerns from stakeholders about the smooth and efficient conduct of the limited voter registration exercise.

The EC began the voter registration exercise on September 12 at its district offices across the country to enable individuals who have attained the age of 18 to acquire voter identity cards for the upcoming 2024 presidential and parliamentary polls.