The Electoral Commission claims it lacks the capacity to expand the registration process to electoral areas, as some opposition political parties have urged.
At a press conference on Monday, September 18, 2023, Commissioner Mrs. Jean Mensa told journalists that the EC had not budgeted for the restricted registration effort to be undertaken in electoral areas.
She denied allegations that it is attempting to disenfranchise people through the ongoing limited voter registration process.
According to her, it is not in our interest to disenfranchise eligible voters, but it is in their interest to register them all.
However, our present circumstances make it impossible for us to conduct the ongoing registration on an electoral area basis.
She revealed that the EC had prepared a draft CI for a continuous registration exercise in all district offices nationwide, and this initiative started last year.
The EC, she noted, envisaged under the draft CI a long-term, sustained registration exercise, and had the CI passed, they would have had six months to register voters at any time of their choice in their district offices.
According to her, the EC did not factor the electoral area registration exercise into their budget, hence the adoption of the registration exercise in the district offices of the EC nationwide.
Jean Mensa stressed that the 2023 budget and work plan of the EC were planned along those lines and were based on the conscious registration exercise and not a registration exercise on an electoral area basis.
She stressed that the restriction of registration to its district offices will not in any way disenfranchise voters.
She said that the EC plans to hold continuous registration in the district offices as well as mop-up exercises in hard-to-reach areas before the 2024 elections.
“It is important to note that this will not be the only registration exercise we will have before the 2024 elections.”
Source: rainbowradioonline.com
