The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has lauded the Electoral Commission for successfully conducting the voter’s registration exercise amid legal battles it has been faced with.
The group described the process as ‘generally fine’, considering setbacks during the pre-registration period.
Speaking on the Morning Star on Monday, CODEO Project Lead Rhoda Afful noted “if you look at all the difficulties that ensued in the pre-registration period which could have impacted in their preparation, all the litigation in court, there is no doubt that they were still going ahead with their planning.”
“But definitely you will see some level of uncertainty as to how you are proceeding with the exercise. So, if you are looking at all those challenges in the pre-registration period and how they still managed to pull this through, I think generally its gone fine,” she maintained.
On the issue of minors getting on to the voter roll, she indicated it was difficult to determine who was a minor or not, given there was no form of verification to that effect.
She said “the issue of minors is always a tricky one. For instance, in one constituency, we had an observer report that some people who came, he suspects may have been minors, but agents didn’t raise any objection maybe because they didn’t want to inflame tensions because of previous incidents in that area.”
“Sometimes, its difficult to just look at somebody and say you are underage. There are other people that may be easy to tell. But if we are making sure that we are checking, that there is some form of verifying, you are coming to say you are eighteen, what’s the evidence that you are eighteen, is it your birth certificate, is it your Ghana card. But where people don’t have any form of documentation, it really becomes difficult for you to challenge them,” she added.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
