EC Affirms Commitment To Physically Challenged

The Electoral Commission (EC) has affirmed its commitment to make provisions for the physically challenged to participate in the biometric voters registration. The Municipal Electoral Officer of LEKMA, Mr Emmanuel Addai, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic in an interview said officers from the EC would register on behalf of any physically challenged individual who would not be in the position to register. �If the voter is a leper, the EC would try as much as possible to take fingerprints of any officer from the EC to represent the leper� he said. Biometric voter registration involves the use of biometric technology in voter registration. According to Mr Addai, the upcoming registration exercise would result in the compilation of an entirely new voters register that would replace the existing voters register and all previous voter I.D cards. �Every registered voter must therefore be registered anew� he said. Explaining how the registration would be done, he said the exercise would be done in clusters simultaneously in all regions across the country. That, he said, meant that a team of registration officials with a set of equipment (kit) would be assigned to a number of polling stations in an electoral area. The team would operate in a registration centre (polling station) until all registration centres in the electoral area were covered. Electoral areas that were large and had more polling stations would however have two or more registration teams. He said there would be no extension of registration in any registration centre after the ten days period. Mr Addai said citizens who were eligible to vote would be required to provide an existing voter I.D card or provide two guarantees if the person did not have an I.D card to register. He observed that any political party, organisation, or group of persons convicted of unlawful possession of a voter I.D card would be liable to a fine. A District Registration Review Committee (DRRC) would be set up in every district to investigate and determine registration challenges in the respective districts. Mr Addai stressed that the voter I.D card was not supposed to be used for any other purpose than voting. �The I.D card is not for withdrawing money from the bank it is for voting purposes� he said. In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Municipal Chief Executive of LEKMA, Mr Daniel Amartey Mensah, said after extensive deliberations, the EC realised that they needed to broaden their scope. �They thought it necessary to summon the assembly with the motive of ensuring that necessary information on the biometric voters registration is disseminated for the electorate to be also educated� he said. Mr Amartey Mensah also debunked the notion that the biometric voters registration could have medical implications on one�s health adding that �there is nothing like cancer when it comes to biometric voter registration. �Those disseminating this information are ignorant� He appealed to the community to actively get involved in the exercise and co operate with the EC to make it very successful.