Regional News of Saturday, 16 September 2023

Source: starrfm.com.gh

Applicants stranded as malfunctioning EC equipment slows process

Some stranded applicants Some stranded applicants

Many applicants in parts of the Eastern region have been left stranded daily at various district offices of the Electoral Commission due to their inability to register.

Most of the applicants are from far villages who travelled to the EC offices to register in the ongoing voters registration exercise but were unsuccessful due to system challenges with the biometric registration machine that continue to slow the exercise.

In the Upper Manya Krobo district, for instance, many are left stranded every day at Asesewa, the district capital due to their inability to register.

On Tuesday, September 12, 2023, which is the first day of the exercise, only 28 applicants were registered due to network challenges and power outages.

On the second day, 85 out of over 150 applicants who traveled far and near over 2 hours from their villages to the registration center were able to register.

Ninety-five (95) out of over 200 applicants were registered the next day.

As at 4:50pm on Friday only 82 out of over 150 have been registered.

Many of the applicants who were unable to register had to find places to sleep, having been given numbers by EC officials to return the following morning.

In the Asuogyaman Constituency, a similar situation is happening.

The registration exercise has been fraught with network challenges and malfunction of the registration equipment.

At New Juaben South, the District EC officer Kofi Asante Owusu said registration is being conducted online and offline due to an unstable network.

By the end of the fourth day, a total of 462 applicants had been registered in New Juaben South.

On Tuesday 35 were registered.

129 were registered the following day.

On Thursday, 166 applicants were registered while 132 registered on Friday.