Ho, May 14, GNA - The inability of many Ghanaians to produce documentations to prove their birth dates poses a big challenge to the current registration exercise, Miss Laurencia Kpatakpa, Volta Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC) has said.
She told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview on Friday that prospective voters were expected to present documentations such as birth or baptismal certificates or passports at the registration centres, but the majority turned up without any form of documentation.
Miss Kpatakpa said this left registration officers with the unpleasant job of using their discretion to decide if prospective voters were qualified age-wise.
She disagreed with the notion that turnout for the registration was appalling, explaining the exercise was for those who had turned 18 between the last registration exercise in 2004 and now and not a general registration exercise for all.
Miss Kpatakpa said those who were above 18 during the last registration exercise and for one reason or the other could not register were also eligible to register in the just ended exercise.
She said turnout in the Volta Region was satisfactory and that there were no major incidents that could derail the process. Miss Kpatakpa said the supposed low numbers could also mean that people had understood the process and did not try to register twice as had been the case in the past.