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Nandom Constituency experiences voters’ exhibition challenges

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Some voters exhibition centres in the Nandom constituency of the Upper West Region are experiencing some challenges in respect of omission of some names in the voters’ register.

The Upper West Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Ali Osman, however, says the Commission is working around the clock to rectify the anomalies identified.

Ali Osman.

GBC’s Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo in this special report says only Kpisib out of the six exhibition centres visited in four electoral areas in the Constituency had no issue in connection with the exclusion of voters from the list.

The electoral Areas visited were Bu, Bapulla, Tantuo and Kokoligu.

At Yaateng in the Bapulla Electoral Area, the Chief of the Community, Naa Beyuo Bedirele said someone came to him on Sunday, September 20, saying he was there to exhibit the voter register and he settled the exhibition team under a particular tree for the exercise, but after two days of working, the team was nowhere to be found.

The Chief of Yaateng, Naa Beyuo Bedirele.

At Bikyiinteng and Gbatakuri in the Kokoligu Electoral Area, there was no show at the two designated exhibition centres when the GBC team visited.

A resident of Bikyiinteng, Madam Paulina Batogbee indicated that her name was not in the register when she went to check at the centre and that there were only about ten people captured as potential voters for the area.

Unconfirmed reports have it that at the Gbatakuri Exhibition Centre out of the 147 people that registered, none was captured in the voters’ exhibition register.

In the Tantuo Electoral Area at the Tampelle Primary School Centre, out of the 398 people who registered, only 124 had their details on the Exhibition list. Only six out of the 207 registered voters were captured at the Temporary Booth Aagureteng Exhibition Centre.

The six out of the 207 registered voters captured at the Aagureteng Exhibition Centre.

GBC caught up with a potential voter, Dr Lawrence Naaikuuu, who had visited the Aagureteng Exhibition Centre also in the Tantuo Electoral Area more than once to check his name without success.

He said: “I came here the very day the register was exhibited and my name was missing. And this is the second time I am coming to check and the name is still not there. I have realised that when I came to register, my name was 97 on the list. Now I have realised that only six people out of the total number of people that are supposed to be on the voters’ register are there and I travelled all the way from Wa to come and register and have travelled again twice from Wa to come and check my name and my name is not there.”

Dr Lawrence Naaikuuu.

“I am very worried that my name is not there at this very crucial time, it is only a few days to the end of the exhibition and many, many people’s names are still missing,” Dr Naaikuur averred.

“This is crucial, this is our civic right and we have duly exercised our right and responsibility to come and register only for our names to be missing in this blatant way, this is highly disappointing.”

Dr Naaikuur entreated the EC to rectify the situation, saying, the Electoral Commission has “the sole responsibility to rectify this anomaly”.

A young man, Paulinus Nibenga, as well as two ladies—Florence Yelfaadem and Dorcas Aagure—were among those who did not see their names at the Aagureteng Exhibition centre.

A prospective voter, Paulinus Nibenga, whose name was not in the register at Aagureteng Exhibition Centre.

The Assemblyman for Tantuo Electoral Area, Dong Richard Tinonetaar equally expressed sentiment about the situation.

He stated: “I know that it is not a deliberate thing. I know it must be a system problem and we are praying that the EC office should be able to work things out so that my people name should appear before the election date.”

The Upper West Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Ali Osman said, “the Commission is working feverishly to surmount the challenges that arose in uploading some data into the verification management system (VMS) and that no one will be disenfranchised.”

A visit to the Nandom Municipal office of the EC saw a staff, Madam Paschalina Baapengtuo busily working on a VMS to resolve issues for some prospective voters.

Story filed by Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo.

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