In a press release by Care for Free and Fair Elections Ghana “CARE” GHANA, the group noted with concern that some of the ID numbers of the voter’s ID cards issued at the Okaikwei North District in the ongoing voter registration exercise had been duplicated.
The statement added that most of the individuals in possession of these ID cards were unaware of the development and feared they will be turned away or arrested and prosecuted on the day of the election.
The Electoral Commission of Ghana who hitherto had detected these anomalies at two registration centres at the Okaikwei North District has resolved the issue and has promised to replace these cards for their holders.
A release from the Commission sited by Happy 98.9 FM read, “Investigations into the anomaly which was detected on the day the incident occurred revealed that a faulty kit that had its unique identity transferred to a backup kit was released to the District Office after it had been repaired without creating a new identity for it.”
This resulted in two kits with the same identity issuing the same Voters ID numbers to the applicants.”
According to the Commission, their investigations had revealed that sixty-four (64) applicants had been affected by the anomaly and promised to issue them with new Voter ID numbers at the completion of the voters’ registration exercise.
The statement was quick to disabuse the minds of Ghanaians from rumours implying the affected persons would be disenfranchised. “The affected applicants have unique bio-data and biometrics. As such, they stand no risk of being disenfranchised on voting day.”
The commission also assured the general public that the necessary measures had been put in place to prevent the reoccurrence of such anomalies.