Ghana Votes

Monday, February 20, 2012

GHANA Elections 2012 estimated at 243, million Ghana Cedis



Elections 2012 is estimated to cost the nation 243, 528, 305.00 Ghana Cedis, Electoral Commission (EC) Electoral Budget available to the Ghana News Agency at the weekend revealed.
The budget estimates that the Biometric Voter Registration Exercise will cost 148,942,378.00 Ghana cedis; the exhibition of the Provisional Register 7,477,966.00 Ghana cedis and the Presidential and Parliamentary elections 87,107,961.00 Ghana cedis.

Explaining the Financial estimates, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan said Government have already released a total of 134,726, 083.00 Ghana cedis so far to the Commission.

He said due to the timely release of funds, the EC was ready to undertake a Biometric Voter Registration of all eligible persons, including prisoners, in all regions and districts, at the same time, from March 24th to May 5th.

The EC Chairman explained that Digital Registration Kit embedded with a computer, a webcam, a finger print scanner, an inkjet printer, a power regulator and Li-lon batteries would be used for the Biometric Voter Registration.

Dr Afari-Gyan said the Commission has purchased 7000 kits for the registration, stressing that each kit was housed in a compact, lockable and robust case, which was water, dust and shock proof.

He however noted that 7000 kits were not enough for nationwide registration at the over 23,000 polling stations at the same time, therefore polling stations in each district of the country had been grouped into clusters, with each cluster consisting of four polling stations.

He said a team of six persons would be responsible for the registration of voters in each cluster, adding that the team would spend ten days at each polling station before moving on to another, which would make the actual registration period 40 days throughout the country.

Dr Afari-Gyan said apart from the six-person team per cluster of polling stations, there will be three registration supervisors and two technicians for each district.

The EC Chairman said it was unfortunate that whilst many took great delight in making allegations of electoral fraud causing unnecessary panic in the process, these personalities failed to take time to learn about the various measures that had been put in place to ensure that fraud was easily detected and prevented.

Dr.Afari-Gyan advised Ghanaians to acquaint themselves well enough with the various electoral processes, in order not to easily get swept off by rumours that had utterly no basis.

EC announces dates for biometric registration

 

The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan has announced the date for the commencement of the much-anticipated biometric voter registration ahead of the elections in December.

Speaking at a media encounter to brief journalists on the EC's preparedness for the exercise, the EC boss gave the assurance that the biometric register will be ready for use in the December polls.

According to him, the registration exercise will begin on Saturday March 24 and end on Saturday May 5 2012. The nationwide exercise will be carried out in four phases with each phase lasting for a maximum of ten days, weekends inclusive.

Phase one of the registration exercise commences on March 24 and ends on April 2 with the second phase continuing almost immediately from April 4 to 13 2012.

The third phase of the registration will start on April 15 and end on April 24 with the final phase of the registration running from April 26 to May 5.

The 40-day registration exercise will be held at the polling station levels with four polling stations coming together to form a cluster for the registration.

As part of the registration process, prospective voters will be required to provide their exact date of birth, their current residential address as well as their hometown address.

Applicants will also be be required to show evidence of eligibility to register by providing either a birth certificate, passport, baptismal card, a driver's license or a national health insurance card, the national I.D card or the existing voter ID card.

The prints from all ten fingers of applicants as well as their images will be captured digitally as part of the registration exercise. In the event of an applicant having lost some fingers, the fingerprints of the available fingers will be captured. Special arrangements will also be made for the registration of persons without fingers.

After the registration formalities, applicants will receive a new voter's ID card which contains their photograph and a barcode containing their unique ID card number.

According to Dr. Afari Gyan, measures have been taken to ensure that data captured during the registration process is secured. To this end, a technical committee has been set up comprising staff of the EC and representatives from the political parties to examine ways of achieving data security.

A pilot project of the biometric registration is expected to be carried out in all the regions at a yet to be announced date.


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