Regional News of Wednesday, 21 March 2012

Source: GNA

UDS Students appeal for break to participate in biometric voter registration

Students of the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) have appealed to the Government to convince the University Authorities to give them a week’s break to enable them to travel to their respective electoral areas to register as voters.

They said it was appropriate for every qualified voter to register in his or her Constituency because the Electoral Commission (EC) had made it clear that there would be no voting by proxy in view of the biometric voter registration system.

The students, who made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Wa, on Wednesday, appealed to the Government and the various political parties to make transport available in all educational institutions to convey the students to their constituencies to register.

They said the appeal was necessary because some students, especially those who had to travel from the South to the North and vice versa, may not go to register because of the high cost involved in traveling from their institutions to their constituencies.

The students, who described their call as urgent, said it would not only relieve them and their parents from the cost of traveling but would also enable them to register and vote at their original constituencies.

Additionally, the appeal would also fulfill the Electoral Commission’s goal of capturing all eligible Ghanaian voters in the new biometric register.**