The Electoral Commission can organise a second round of voters registration exercise for specific groups of people if it abides by the laws regulating the exercise, the Coalition Of Domestic Elections Observers (CODEO) has said.
The Constitutional Instrument 91 (C.I. 91) on Public Election Regulation 2016 stipulates, among others that the Commission shall not include in the register of voters the name of a person who registers less than sixty days to that election.
National Coordinator of CODEO, Rhoda Osei Afful on Eyewitness News indicated that the EC will therefore not flout the law by conducting the second round of the registration exercise around this period.
“The point is if the Electoral Commission is able to give the people the opportunity to register within this period before the 60 days then that is very much welcome.”
Although modalities of this second round of voter registration are still not clear, it would be targeted at three categories of eligible voters.
These include eligible voters who were outside the country due to COVID-19 restrictions, those who were under a 14-day mandatory quarantine and could not take part in the mass voter registration, and eligible voters who were duly issued voter ID Cards but whose names are missing from the register under exhibition.
The political parties however do not seem to welcome the idea.
The National Democratic Congress’ Director of IT, Kwame Osei Agyeman-Griffiths argued that even when the Electoral Commission (EC) succeeds in carrying out this registration, such voters will not be able to take part in the December polls since the registration wouldn’t have met the statutory 60-day period.
The NDC thus believes such an effort at this time would be in futility.
