Electoral Commission guarantees erratic power cuts will not affect Limited Voter Registration
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As Ghanaians continue to grapple with intermittent power cuts, some are worried that it could negatively impact the Electoral Commission’s Limited Voter Registration, which begins on Tuesday, April 7, 2024. The 21-day exercise will end on May 27, 2024.
At a Press Conference at the EC Headquarters in Accra, Chairperson, Mrs Jean Mensa told journalists that provision has been made to overcome the power trip should it occur during the Limited Voter Registration period. She assured that voter registration would be continuous because generators are being hired, and these would kick in to supply power to the registration points in case of a power trip.
”We are trying hard to, we’ve made arrangements to ensure that we don’t have challenges because of dumsor. What we’ve done is to have all our district offices rent generators so that in the event where there’s dumsor, that can kick in.”
Mrs. Mensa explained that the EC would work in ”offline” mode should the generators fail. She said this information would be stored on a pendrive and later transferred.
“However, should there be the unexpected, we would switch on to offline, and by offline, it means the voters will be registered and their details will be put on a pen drive that will be copied in our offices when the light returns, so the registration will not be disrupted,” the EC Chairperson noted.
Mrs Jean Mensa said the EC projects registering approximately 623,000 first-time voters across Ghana.
She explained that to ensure accessibility and inclusivity, the Commission has identified 785 underprivileged electoral areas where registration would be conducted.
“Mobile teams will traverse electoral areas, spending two days in each area and three days at each public university registering eligible candidates.”
The eligibility criteria for registration according to the EC include Ghanaian citizenship, age 18 years and above, sound mental capacity, and residency in the intended voting district in the December 7, 2024 General Election.
