Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), on Wednesday reassured voters that thumb-print ID cards will continue to be exchanged for photo ID cards up to election day.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, Dr Afri-Gyan commented on media reports that eligible voters in Upper East Region are entertaining fears that they might not be able to vote in the December elections.

He said the commission is exchanging the Photo ID cards region by region because of the limited number of cameras and to provide maximum coverage.

He said the exercise started in the Northern Region on July 24 and will end in Greater Accra on November 12, 2000. The commission is yet to cover the Western, Central and Greater Accra regions.

He said the EC is working with a timetable that must be followed. Dr Afari-Gyan said the Northern, Brong Ahafo, Volta and Western regions were allotted 10 days each, the Ashanti and Eastern used 12 days each, Upper East and Upper West, five days each while Central and Greater Accra Regions will use nine and seven days respectively.

After the regional exercise, a mop-up team will continue exchanging the thumbprint cards for the photo ID card at the district offices of the commission.

Dr Afari-Gyan said the commission issued photo ID cards to registered voters in all regional capitals and selected constituencies in 1995. It issued thumbprint voter ID cards to all other registered voters.

He said: "If we are informed that there is a sizeable group who have not changed the thumb-print ID card we will mobilise to do it through a transparent order." He said the depreciation of the cedi has drastically affected the commission's budgetary allocation for the elections.

He said the commission was allocated 23 billion cedis in October last year for the electoral process, which involved revising the voters' register, exchanging thumbprint ID cards and other pre-electoral activities.

He said because of the economic constraints, the EC could not do house-to-house photo taking and he appealed to the political parties to provide transport to the district centres for voters who need to exchange their cards.

On the Organisation of African Unity's method of voting being proposed by the NPP, Dr Afari-Gyan said he would address it at the speaker's breakfast meeting on Thursday