Bolgatanga, April 30, GNA - A total of 9,655 people in the Upper East Region acquired new voters Identity (ID) cards during the replacement exercise.

They had to replace their voter ID cards either because they had lost the old ones or that their old cards were in taters. Mr. Adam Iddrisu, Regional Director, Electoral Commission, said this on Wednesday in Bolgatanga during a forum on "Building stakeholders' confidence in the outcome of the 2008 Elections" organised for political parties and the media in the region. He said the exercise, which started on March 14 and lasted for 10 days, was a success in the region even though the Bawku Municipality and Garu-Tempane District had to do theirs later due to the conflict in that area at that time.

Mr. Iddrisu said challenges the exercise faced included lack of interest by political parties and inability of persons who had lost their cards to remember the numbers of their cards and the centres where they were registered.

Some who expected to get instant ID cards were disappointed and some replacement centres were so large that mobile teams had to be created to reach all the people who needed to replace their cards. The Municipal and District Assemblies replaced the following number of voters ID cards, Bolgatanga Municipality, 1,321, Bawku Municipality, 1,589, Bongo District, 965, Bawku West District, 678, Talensi Nabdam District, 945, Bulisa District, 1,012, and Kassena Nankana, 2,493.