Correspondence from Northern Region

The first phase of the compilation of the new voters register exercise in the Northern Region has witnessed serious breaches of the safety protocols by the World Health Organization (WHO).

GhanaWeb Northern Regional correspondent, Abdul Rashid, visits to some of the registration centres in the Sagnarigu and Tamale Metro observed that social distancing and the use of face masks were bizarrely disregarded with impunity in the registration centres.

Speaking to Victor Gbedema, a resident of Tamale, he indicated that, the process of the registration is going on smoothly but adherence to the safety protocols is what is been thrown to the dogs.

He admitted, even though everything is going on smoothly but with regards to the protocols, “we are not observing the social distancing. I think education is not going down well in the North here, it looks like we don't even believe that coronavirus exists because people are not dying as we see on TV."

“He proceeded that one thing he has observed is “people die in their homes and they send them to the mortuary and that is all, they don't perform post-mortem but I know probably they might have died out of the COVID 19."

Madam, Sumaya, an electoral officer of the electoral commission (EC) in one of the registration centres, however, explained that the registration started on time and the process too, was smooth

She revealed, averagely it takes a person ten (10) minutes to complete the registration process and she was of the hope that, by the end of the day, they will be able to register at least, fifty (50) people.

GhanaWeb also observed that only the two major political parties; NPP and the NDC were adequately represented at the registration centres.

However, some people have also attributed the issue of the social distancing problem to inadequate representation of the security personnel and urged that, moving forward, it should be looked at in order to ensure people do not disregard the protocols in the coming days.