Accra, Feb. 12, GNA - The Electoral Commission (EC) on Thursday launched an awareness campaign to usher in the registration exercise for a new voters' register for this year's Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.

This means that all eligible voters would have to register afresh from March 16 to March 29 and be issued with a new Voter Identity Card to enable them to vote in the elections.

The new registration would demand two photographs of the voter: one to be placed on the identity card and the other along side the person's name in the register to facilitate easy identification.

Launching the campaign, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the EC, said the implementation of the registration process would take place in all the 21,000 registration centres from the stipulated period. He explained that because of lack of sufficient cameras some centres would not run the registration process and the issuance of the cards concurrently.

"In most regions, the two processes will be executed in two distinctive operational phases - this means that in most regions there will be no cameras at the registration centres, so people will not get their photo ID cards at the time of they register," Dr Afari-Gyan said. He said such voters would be notified in advance when to go back to take their photographs to be issued their voter ID cards.

The Chairman said multiple registrations, registration by ineligible persons and the existence on the register of the names of dead persons had contributed in varying degrees to the bloating of the register, hence the need for the exercise.

For example, the current register contains numerous names of dead people, due to the inability or unwillingness of relatives to report the death of people for their names to be removed.

Also there have been widespread allegations of minors voting in recent by-elections.

Besides, Dr AfariGyan said the belief if widely shared among the Commission and the electoral stakeholders that a fresh registration was viable option for eliminating the deficiencies of the existing register.

He said the EC has put in place a mechanism that would enable people to challenge the qualification of persons applying for registration, adding, "all person challenged and challengers would appear before a review committee to look into the matter and decide whether the person qualified to register.

A right of appeal existed for anyone who was not satisfied with the decision of the committee to apply to a Chief Registration Review Officer, whose decision would be final.

The Commissioner said after the registration exercise, a provisional Voters Register would be compiled and displayed at each of the 21,000 centres for seven days for public scrutiny and for persons to verify their names to avoid possible disappointment on Election Day. He enumerated a number possible offences such as registering more than once, impersonation, unlawful possession of registration materials, lying about one nationality and preventing a qualified person from registering.

He said: "Any person found guilty... is liable on conviction by a court to a fine not exceeding one million cedis, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both.

Dr Afari-Gyan said, having launched the campaign, the Commission would now embark on a full-scale education of the public about the exercise using the media and people-to-people contact.