Low patronage: Officers call for more publicity on Voter Register exhibition

The voter register exhibition exercise has witnessed low patronage so far, with officers calling on the Electoral Commission (EC) to collaborate with other state agencies to intensify public education on the exercise.

The officers said the National Commission for Civic Education and the Information Services Department, for instance, were needed to maximise public awareness of the important exercise that formed a part of the national democratic process.

They explained that the measure would help to whip up public interest in the ongoing exercise which ends tomorrow, November 7, 2023.

The officers further stated that although the exercise took off smoothly last Friday with the provision of the necessary materials, patronage was not encouraging.

The call was made by five exhibition officers when the Daily Graphic visited a number of polling stations in Accra last Friday.

The polling stations were the Kaneshie 1&4 Cluster of Schools where there are 11 polling stations; the Letemen’s Bakery 1 polling station; Saint Joseph Primary School 1&2 polling stations and the Adabraka Day Care Centre polling station.

Visits

At the Kaneshie 1&4 Cluster of Schools, the exhibition officer, Eyiram Kpodo, said as of 3:05 p.m., only 16 out of the 1,500 registered voters in the 11 polling stations had checked their names in the voters register.

“The exercise needs more publicity because it appears people are not aware; they should come and give us work because we sat here doing almost nothing the whole day,” she stated.

At the Letemen’s Bakery 1 polling station, the exhibition officer, Peter Kumordzi, said as of 1:32 p.m., 10 out of 418 eligible voters had checked their names in the voters register, adding, however, that he was expecting more people to participate in the exercise in the subsequent days before the exercise ended tomorrow.

At the St Joseph’s Primary School 1&2, as of 1.42 p.m., nobody had come to check his or her details.

There are 418 eligible voters at the two polling stations on the register.

The exhibition officers, Munirat Adaku and Whitney Agyen Frempong, both called for more publicity on the exercise to encourage people to turn out in their numbers to check their particulars before the end of the exercise.

At the Adabraka Day Care Centre polling station, as of 1:50 p.m., only two people out of 402 eligible voters had checked their particulars.

The exhibition officer, Mavis Laryea, said she was expecting more people to patronise the exercise in the subsequent days.

At the Okaikoi District office of the EC, the electoral officer, David Chinery, said he was yet to receive any negative report from all the 197 polling stations in the Okaikoi South Constituency.

He said at the district office, the officers were working on the replacement of lost voter ID cards.