A youth activist for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Western Region, Thomas Dindiego has added his voice to calls for the limited registration exercise to be held at the electoral areas instead of limiting it to the district offices of the Electoral Commission.
He insisted that the party will ‘continually’ refuse to agree on the Electoral Commission’s call to conduct limited voter registration at the commission’s district offices.
He has accused the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, of scheming to rig the 2024 elections for the NPP by subjecting the conduct of the limited voter registration exercise to its district offices instead of decentralizing the process.
Speaking to journalists in a sideline interview on Sunday, September 10, the NDC youth activist narrated that this decision also has the potential to disenfranchise a significant number of Ghanaians who reside in hard-to-reach areas located in the districts.
To this end, he has challenged the chairperson to consider first-time registrants in every deprived community in the country to register because Ghana is not only Greater Accra which is blessed with an accessible road network.
Thomas Dindiego expressed concerns that many eligible voters might lack the means to travel from their villages to the EC’s district offices for registration.
This, Thomas Dindiego said would help curb many inconveniences including transportation, the lack of money to move from distant locations, and access if the exercise is decentralized.
“See, there are communities in Wassa Amenfi East such as Wassa Mampong, Ajumako, and Boykrom among others, you will need at least GH¢250 to travel to and from Wassa Akropong, the municipal capital just to register and the saddest part is that you will need to pay double if you failed to register for the first time due to overcrowding” he stressed.
He added that Ghanaians would like to know how much the EC will spend on the budget allocation for their exercise should they [EC] refuse to decentralize the registration exercises across the country.
This is because, according to Thomas, parliament has granted budgetary allocation for the EC to enable it to undertake its activities for the election period including the limited registration.
He said the EC will spend less on the limited registration when the exercise is carried out at the district centers thus, Ghanaians would need to know any dime that will be used for the exercise.
Meanwhile, the youth activist has called on the Electoral Commission to increase the number of centres for the voter registration exercise scheduled for September 12 to October 2, 2023.
Source: ghanaweb.com / Thomas Didiego, Contributor
