High turnout at registration centres put pressure on staff

High turnout at the eight voter registration centres in the Kassena Nankana Municipality in the Upper East Region is mounting pressure on the registration staff. A court ordered the Electoral Commission to conduct registration of voters in the eight registration centres of the Atosale\Azaasi and Akumkongo\Abempingo electoral areas in the Kassena Nankana Municipality, where 3,000 people failed to register when the rest of the country was registering under the biometric system last March. Some people, who went on Monday to register, were not able to do so because of the long queues. A visit by the Ghana News Agency to the Abepingo registration centre on Tuesday saw three different queues made up of the aged, students and men and women. About 194 people had registered since Monday at the centre and before midday on Tuesday 80 had registered. The Akumkongo\Abepingo Electoral area has four registrations centres, one at Abepingo and three at Akumkongo.  Ms Christina Achana, an official at one of the centres, explained that a breakdown of printers on the first day delayed registration exercise which started at 1300 hours. Mr Joshua Apoeya, a student at the St John Bosco Training school in Navrongo, who spoke on behalf of the students, said they had only two days to return to school and had missed the first day already.  He expected that with the increasing pressure, the Electoral Commission should increase the number of staff to speed up the exercise. Madam Amagura Akalunga, a 50-year old woman at Abempingo said, she could not register on the first day because of the long queue and had come again hoping to be able to do so.  At Akurugu Daboo the printer situation was not different and only 70 people were able to register on the first day, while 70 more had registered by noon on Tuesday. Mr Adinan Seidu, registration officer at Doba Primary, said 140 had registered as at 1230 hours.

GNA