Benjamin Barno-Bio, Ashanti Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), has commended stakeholders for their contributions which had ensured the success of the pilot voter registration exercise in the region.

He said through the cooperation of all the key stakeholders particularly, the political parties, “everything has gone well since the start of the exercise yesterday”.

Speaking to journalists in Kumasi, he said, the machine had worked perfectly throughout the start of the exercise in the region.

He said the EC were able to register 67 eligible voters on the first day, while 60 had been registered as the time he was talking to the media.

Mr Barno-Bio said it took less than 10 minutes for a person to go through the registration process.

All the preventive and restrictive protocols outlined by the government to fight the spread of the coronavirus were strictly followed during the exercise.

He said representatives of political parties in the region were present to observe the process, adding that 35 people stood in as guarantors for people whose identities were in doubt. Mr Barno-Bio said the essence of this exercise was to identify problems associated with the new voters’ registration system and find ways of dealing with any problems before the actual exercise began at the end of this month.

He said there are no major problems so far and expressed the hope that with the measures put in place, the exercise would go on smoothly during the main exercise.

Mr Sam Pyne, Ashanti Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), told the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi that, the exercise had been very successful in the region.

He said if the EC could follow all that was exhibited during the pilot exercise, then everything would go on well in the main registration exercise.

However, Mr Kwame Zu, Ashanti Regional Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), said the pilot registration, which was conducted in a controlled environment could not be used to determine what could happen in the actual exercise in a registration centre.

He said though the outcome in the Ashanti Region has been successful, that could not be a representative of what happened in other regions where there are reports that the new voter registration machines stalled and prevented the exercise to continue on the second day.