Minority Leader’s comments “unfortunate”; no downsizing of polling stations – EC

The Electoral Commission (EC) has refuted suggestions that it would reduce the number of polling stations in the upcoming voter registration exercise.

Rather, the EC said, “the 2020 registration would be in phases under a cluster system. This means that the 33,367 registration centres will be divided into five”.

This was contained in a statement issued in Accra today.

The statement said, “each cluster would consist of 6,780 registration centres. Each cluster would be made up of five registration centres numbered 1-5. During the first phase, all the registration centres numbered 1 nationwide will register applicants for 6 days.

It further explained that during the second phase, all registration centres numbered 2, will register applicants for 6 days adding that “this will go on until all the phases are covered. Thereafter, there will be a nationwide mop-up exercise”

The EC said at no point during the discussion did the EC state that it was phasing out or reducing the polling stations by 6,780 and, therefore, described the comments by the Minority Leader as “unfortunate”.

The EC again took on the Minority leader for suggesting that the EC didn’t understand data synchronisation because the Commission had indicated during the meeting that it was not going to rely on the biometric data of citizens captured by the NIA.

The statement said, “Nowhere has the Commission stated that it intends to use the biometric data in NIA’s database”.

It explained that the recently passed CI to guide the registration of voters, CI 126, does not include provisions to allow for the use of the biometric data of the NIA.

“What the CI states, and which is what the Commission is seeking to do is to rely on the physical NIA card to prove a person’s citizenship as a pre-condition for registration”

The statement went further to state that had the Minority Leader read the CI 126, it would have been obvious to him that the Commission was not seeking to synchronize its data with that of the NIA.

“For the record, merely presenting one’s card to prove one’s citizenship does not require a direct relationship or collusion with the NIA as the Minority has sought to portray,” the statement said.

The EC noted that It found it interesting that the same Minority which accused the EC of being in bed with the NIA to rig the election, would today turn around and propose data synchronisation, which would require the EC to work directly with the NIA and rely extensively on its biometric data in its database.

On Tuesday, The EC met with the Special Budget Committee of Parliament to discuss modalities for the new voter roll.

After the meeting, Mr Iddrisu held a press conference. He indicated that: “they [EC] intend to phase out the registration exercise in some 6,300 registration centres out of the 33, 000 registration centres across the country.”

In response, the Acting Director of Public Affairs of the EC indicated in a statement that the existing number of polling stations would be maintained.

“…the 33,367 registration centres will be divided into five. Each cluster would consist of 6,780 registration centres. Each cluster would be made up of 5 registration centres numbered 1-5,” she explained.