Politics of Monday, 30 April 2012

Source: GNA

Junior High School graduate causes stir at registration centre

A stir was caused at a registration centre at the Methodist Junior High School in Sunyani last Thursday when the eligibility of Alhassan Mohammed, a junior high school graduate, to acquire a voter’s identification card was strongly challenged by a party agent.

The house number that Alhassan mentioned to support his registration was incidentally the exact abode of one of the party agents at the center.

The party agent, becoming suspicious posed several questions to him.

Alhassan, a resident of Nankitiwa, a village near Sunyani, traveled Akorakwadwo electoral area to register even though a similar exercise was going on in his area.

Narrating the incident to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, Mr. Yaw Foster, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party agent, said when the boy came to the center he suspected him to be a minor and subsequently alerted the registration officer who interrogated him.

He explained that it was during questioning that Alhassan mentioned house number SNT Extension 17/4 at Sunyani New Town as his place of abode.

“I asked him whether he knew me and if yes, what was my name to which he could not answer so I challenged his eligibility”, the party agent stated.

Alhassan who wanted to prove his eligibility explained his parents were making plans to rent a room in that house to which the party agent refuted saying “there’s no room for rent in the said house”.

Meanwhile, a tour of some registration centers in Sunyani Municipality, some registration officers have expressed appreciation for the turn out by inhabitants as compared to the first day of the third phase.

They appealed to all eligible voters who had not registered yet to do so since the current phase was the last for them to register.**