Politics of Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Source: GNA

Dome/ Kwabenya sees smooth registration on day four

The biometric voter registration exercise which started on Saturday, March 24, entered the fourth day with most eligible voters still waiting in queues for their turn to register.

The process now seemed to be moving on smoothly, much faster and with most problems solved, compared to what pertained last Saturday when the exercise begun.

Officials at the centres of the Dome Kwabenya Area visited by the Ghana News Agency, said the process was more stable compared to what pertained last Saturday.

According to them, although the computers were still slow in capturing the biometric data, operators were getting used to the management and operation of the systems.

Turn-out was generally encouraging with moderate queues in all the centres visited.

As at 1130 hours, officials, at Christ Chapel Alone International Centre near Kwabenya Abuom junction, had registered 55 people.

Mr Felix Offei Anaman, Assistant Registration Officer, gave the assurance that the team was committed to the work and were able to register 71 on Saturday and 122 on Monday.

Mr Kanda Eyram, Assistant Registration Officer at Gilgal Presbyterain Church centre at Musuku near Ashongman, said the centre had recorded 49 as at 1215 hours.

He said the centre registered 72 people on Saturday, 92 on Sunday, and 101 on Monday indicated how successful the process had been despite the problems they faced on the first day of the registration exercise.

Mr Eyram confirmed the slow nature of the biometric data capturing process, but said the operators were now used to the system and were trying their best to deal with most of the challenges.

As at 1130 hours, the Kwabenya District Assembly Primary school centre team had registered 55 eligible voters.

Mr Emmanuel Okyere, Officer-in-Charge of Special Duties, explained that the data capturing equipment was now in a good condition compared to the previous days when officials were finding it difficult to capture data smoothly.

Mr Okyere however, said the centre had its first challenged form filled when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) agent who questioned the citizenship of a young man who could not communicate in any language except Ewe.

He said the party agent and some eligible voters had argued and testified to the fact that the young man was an alien and a new resident who had spent bearly a month in the community.

There were security men in all the centres, however, only the NPP and National Democratic Congress ( NDC) had their representatives at all the centres GNA visited.**