The voters’ registration exercise by the Electoral Commission (EC) saw registrants trooping into the DC Primary School Kweiman polling station as early as 4 a.m.
The visit to the Danfa Electoral Area, in the La–Nkwantanang/Madina Municipality district revealed that the EC might have put directives and rules in place to protect registrants but the behaviour of the residents before the start of the registration defeats the purpose and intent of the safety measures.
GBCGhanaOnline was at the registration center as early 4 a.m. and counted close to 150 people who were sitting on the corridors of the school. Some claimed they had slept overnight just to be able to get through with the registration. Others had missed the opportunity the previous day even though they had been given queue numbers.
The registration officers arrived as early as 6.31 a.m. and at 7 a.m. when the process began, the entire place became chaotic.
Apart from the aged who managed to grab seats to form a queue, all the others started rushing into forming queues and in the process heckling each other without the least regard for Covid-19 protocols like ensuring social distance amongst them and some registrants not wearing face masks.
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Our inquiry revealed that most of the people had come from nearby constituencies which are yet to be served. It was also observed that registrants from the constituencies and those without face masks were asked to go back home; however, the announcement fell on deaf ears.
Speaking to GBCGhanaOnline, Head of the EC team, Mr. Sarpong lamented over the attitude of registrants. He said, “People are too excited about the exercise such that they fear they may lose out of the registration.”
“Maybe the EC should have done the registration at all polling centers concurrently,” he added. There was total disregard of the social distancing protocols, and some removed their nose masks so they could shout to be heard.
The Assemblyman for the area, Mr. Peter Geh, indicated that he had to be present at the location from morning till they closed on the first day of the exercise just to ensure adherence to the social distancing protocols.
