Regional News of Wednesday, 17 March 2004

Source: GNA

VR's registration exercise going well - Director

Ho, March 17, GNA - Feedback from the twelve districts in the Volta region indicated that public response on the first day of the voter replacement exercise was impressive, Mr Mohammed Addoquaye, Volta Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC) said on Wednesday.

He said averagely, between 40-50 prospective voters were registered in each of the 1,965 registration centres throughout the region. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, Mr Addoquaye said however, some polling centres recorded some teething problems which had been resolved later to facilitate the process.

He said for instance, some registration officers tore-off completely the identification portion and gave out the tear-off slips to eligible voters, adding that the errors had been rectified. Mr Addoquaye said some clerks were using pens, instead of pencils to fill the forms and urged his officers to be more vigilant to spot such mistakes.

He advised registration officers to secure the safety of their bottles of indelible ink to avoid it spilling off. He said each bottle of the ink is expected to service between 500-600 people when properly used.