The vice presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has expressed misgivings over the ongoing limited voters’ registration exercise on some university campuses.
According to him, the Electoral Commission is “practically disenfranchising” eligible first time voters due to the way the registration exercise is being handled on the campuses.
He said the registration centres on the campuses are limited, making it practically impossible for majority of the students to get their names on the electoral roll ahead of the 2016 elections.
“Five days you have been able to do 400 and you are talking about 8000 potential people and so this is really a practical disenfranchisement of the people. You are disenfranchising students practically. If you say you are not doing so intentionally but practically you are doing so,” Dr Bawumia said after observing the registration exercise at the University of Ghana, Legon campus on Wednesday.
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The former deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana has therefore appealed to the Electoral Commission to rectify the issue before the registration ends.
“…And so if we don’t want to disenfranchise people, we need to bring in adequate or a few more registration centers to cater for the population and I think this is what has been missed… I would like to encourage the Electoral Commission to do what is right, to bring in a few more registration centers on Legon campus and anywhere else where this sort of go-slow is pertaining.”
He added: “If out of a potential conservative figure of 8,000, you have done 400 in five days. Now if you extend it for another 5 days, you are only going to do another 400. It is not sufficient.”
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Source: Ghana/starrfmonline.com/103.5FM