CDD analyst worried over limited time period for voter registration

The Center for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana has expressed concern with the limited period for the Electoral Commission’s voter registration exercise.

A Research Analyst with CDD Ghana, Rhoda Osei Afful, in a Citi News interview said more clarity would be needed from the commission on how it intends to make the most of the registration period.

The EC plans to start the exercise on June 30, 2020 and run till the end of July.

But Rhoda Osei Afful said, “what is not clear to me is when the exercise will end because if the exercise was going to end in July then you are looking at something less than the number of days that the Commission had indicated”.

“At the time, based on the days they provided, it seemed reasonable that they could cover, but now if they are starting at the very last day of the month, and we are still going to end in July then it means we are having fewer days,” she said noted.

The EC will once again be using its cluster method for the registration, although the time spent in each cluster is expected to reduce.

Each registration team will spend six days in each phase within a cluster, a reduction from the initial 10 days outlined for the registration exercise.

The mop-up exercise has also reduced from five to three days.

The registration exercise is scheduled to take place at all the 33,367 polling stations, which will serve as registration centres nationwide.

There will be a day set aside, “to assemble and prepare the materials for the next phase,” according to the EC.

In between all this, there will be a day set aside to assemble and prepare the materials for the next phases, according to the EC.

Given the expected plan, Rhoda Osei Afful, said: “it will be much more helpful to adjust the date they are stating otherwise we can have some challenges trying to cover as many people who are eligible as possible.”

Source: citinewsroom