The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), has said\u00a0about 139 centres registered suspected unqualified persons in the Electoral Commission’s limited voter registration exercise\u00a0held in April this year.<\/p>\n
CODEO made this known\u00a0in its final report on the observation of the registration exercise, and pointed out that its observers reported instances of registration of such alleged unqualified persons like minors, foreigners, and people who were not from the communities in which they registered.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”RWK1qRTw4wbKpoFUUwpHp18C7bqMXveT”]According to the Coalition, five regions recorded the highest number of these cases, namely Northern (30 cases), Ashanti (23 cases), Volta (22 cases), Brong Ahafo (18 cases), and Western Region (17 cases).<\/p>\n
\u201cCODEO observers also reported finding monitors from the EC visiting 77% of the registration centers, observed Registration of Suspected Unqualified Persons,\u201d the Coalition stated in the report released by its National Coordinator, Albert Arhin.<\/p>\n
The coalition deployed 250 observers throughout the country to monitor two-phases of the registration exercise undertaken by the Electoral Commission (EC) from April 28- May 8, 2016.<\/p>\n
In all, CODEO said its observers covered a total 1,344 registration centers for both phases of the exercise.<\/p>\n
According to the Coalition, approximately 98% of the registration centers visited by CODEO observers were found to be easy to reach.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, nine out of 10 registration centers were found to be accessible to persons with disabilities; and 87% of registration centers visited had posters directing people to the venue of the exercise.<\/p>\n
Incidence of Violence, Chaos, Harassment and Intimidation<\/strong><\/p>\n According to CODEO, about 8% of registration centers experienced some form of physical violence, confusion and chaos.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch incidents involved accredited party agents, party activists, local party executives and parliamentary candidates, among others disrupting the registration process, and forcing some registration centers to close down till the following day,\u201d CODEO pointed out, adding that security personnel had to intervene in some cases to restore order and enable the resumption of the registration process.<\/p>\n Presence of party agents<\/strong><\/p>\n CODEO indicated that, nearly all 99.9% registration centers observed had an agent from one or more political parties with 92% of centers having agents from only two political parties, National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).<\/p>\n It said the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) had the third largest number of agents, being present in 5% of the centers observed.<\/p>\n Functioning\/Malfunctioning of Registration Equipment<\/strong><\/p>\n Approximately, all (98%) centers had the full complement of the biometric registration kit at the start of the registration on the day the observers visited.<\/p>\n However, 11% of centers encountered some faulty registration equipment in the course of the exercise.<\/p>\n Equipment mostly affected in such instances included printers, fingerprint scanners, and laptops. Some equipment malfunctioning were quickly resolved but others took a great amount of time to be resolved.<\/p>\n Availability of Registration Materials<\/strong><\/p>\n CODEO said there was general availability of registration materials at centers at the start of the exercise each day.<\/p>\n There were however instances of registration centers running out of registration materials in the course of day.<\/p>\n _<\/p>\n By: Awudu Mahama\/election.citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), has said\u00a0about 139 centres registered suspected unqualified persons in the Electoral Commission’s limited voter registration exercise\u00a0held in April this year. CODEO made this known\u00a0in its final report on the observation of the registration exercise, and pointed out that its observers reported instances of registration of such alleged unqualified […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":212940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2647,2648,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n