The Progressive People’s Party (PPP), says the Electoral Commission’s pilot biometric voter registration exercise is not representative enough of the political demographics of the country.
The Commission has announced it will hold a pilot biometric exercise in some selected polling stations in the country on Saturday March 12, to test its new software.
However, the New Patriotic Party and the People’s National Convention, have both criticized the EC for starting the limited voter registration exercise despite the known concerns with the current voters’ register.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Oz1hme5L533XsNX509sgn48PSCIKnYL0″]Speaking to Citi News, the General Secretary of PPP, Murtala Muhammed, criticized the sample size for Saturday’s exercise but urged participation of the parties in the process.
He argued that because Ghana has about 29,000 polling stations, sampling only 20 of them for the pilot exercise “is not representative enough.”
“I think it should have been more than 20 because we have 29,000 polling stations so 20 is not representative enough. If they had done it in even half of the constituencies, it will be enough. I don’t know if they will increase it later but for 20, I think it’s not representative enough,” Mr. Murtala added.
He noted however that PPP will dispatch agents to observe the exercise and make recommendations to the commission at the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting.
Meanwhile, the Director of Public Affairs at the Electoral Commission, Christian Owusu Parry, argued in an interview with Citi News, that the sample size is representative enough.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana