Asante-Akim South: Power outage, network challenges impede limited registration exercise

The first day of the limited registration exercise across the country by the Electoral Commission (EC) was fraught with a combination of power outage and network challenges in the Asante-Akim South Municipality. The commencement of the exercise which was held at the Municipal office of the Commission delayed due to power outage, leaving registration officials, party agents, and prospective registrants helpless. When power was finally restored, the registration could still not proceed due to a nationwide network challenge. Despite hundreds of people mostly brought to the registration centre by political parties, operators of the Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) were sitting idle when the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited the centre. Other registration officials were however filling the forms of prospective registrants as they waited for the network to improve. There was, however, spontaneous excitement among all stakeholders at the centre when the network was restored at exactly 1202 hours Some of the party agents who spoke to the GNA, said they were satisfied with the arrangements for the exercise. They however, entreated the EC to find a lasting solution to the network problem which they said was crucial to the general election on December 7. Mrs. Franca Dei Yeboah, the Municipal Director of EC, said but for the network challenge, her team was set to attend to the prospective registrants without delay. She projected that, at least 120 people would be registered daily all things being equal and called for the cooperation of all stakeholders for a successful exercise. To ensure proximity of the exercise to the people, Mrs. Yeboah said a mobile team would visit three communities during the three-week exercise to register them. She said the team would spend two days each at Kyempo, Dampong and Breku to allow those who could not travel to the Municipal office to get their names on the register. Source: Ghana News Agency