As we begin the day's review, the registration exercise once again takes over the pages of the newspapers. The heritage's story on EC needs support to fix biometric hiccups – NCCE opens the review for today. The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) over the weekend called for total support and cooperation from all stakeholders to enable the Electoral Commission (EC) fix operational hiccups in the on-going biometric voter registration exercise. "The antagonism, character assassination and media warfare against EC and NCCE are uncalled for, as the EC has demonstrated its capacity and capability to deal with the operational challenges, it must therefore be given the opportunity to resolve the problems identified. In any case the exercise is only seven-days old...we have about 30-days to go....we must re-channel our energies against NCCE and EC to give more public education on the exercise," Mr. Harrison Kofi Belley, a Director at NCCE, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview.
The Daily Graphic also reports that with barely 10days in the BVR, the EC is reviewing data on registered voters to ensure that instances of double registration are eliminated. The process, known as duplication, the identification and weeding out of duplicate or multiple registrations is the crux if the biometric voters' registration process to ensure that we have credible and reliable voters register. In the face of many challenges and an extremely short time of implementation, the independent National Electoral Commission has demonstrated its commitment, progressive forward-thinking vision and in fulfilling its objectives of acting on behalf of and in the best interest of the people. In return, a grateful nation has embraced and supported the process and with this type of commitment, the voter registration exercise can already be declared a huge success-which bodes well for the upcoming crucial December parliamentary and presidential elections. The paper states this in its headline "BVR progressing steadily"
Following the EC's promise to prosecute offenders of the biometric registration, both the Daily Guide and the New Statesman reported "Nigerian jailed two years for registering". Monday Chukwu Ebere, a 35 year old Nigerian businessman ,was on Friday sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour for registering as a voter by the Koforidua Circuit Court. Chukwu, who pleaded guilty for deceiving a public officer, would be deported after serving the sentence.
Still on the violence surrounding the registration exercise, the Daily Guide states "Thugs attack registration centre at Kaase". The paper adds that thugs had attacked a biometric voters' registration centre at Kaase in the Asokwa Constituency in Ashanti, temporarily holding up the exercise. The gang allegedly arrived at the centre in a pick-up and on motorbikes, pulled guns and drew machetes.
Similar news from The Chronicle indicates that NYEP boss pulls gun at registration centre. It was a near bloodshed last Thursday at the Akwadum Local Authority Primary School registration centre in the New Juaben North Constituency of the Eastern Region, when supporter of the political giants, the opposition New Patriotic Party(NPP) and ruling National Democratic Congress(NDC),reduced the center to a boxing arena. The situation, which appeared to be a dress rehearsal of the ''all die be die slogan,'' all started when, according to information received by the paper, one Nuhu Abdul Karim, an NPP polling agent at the centre challenged the eligibility of a young girl, whose name was not readily available as at the time of filling this report.
Due to the violent nature of the first phase of the registration exercise, Armed Soldiers and the Police have been deployed to Monitor Registration. The Brong Ahafo Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr. Issah Abdul Nasigri, has disclosed that the Brong Ahafo Regional Security Executive Council (REGSEC) would deploy fully armed soldiers and police to the various biometric registrations centers in the region to monitor the process. The decision, according to The Ghanaian Observer, was taken following the recent skirmishes which ensued between supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at Kuokum in the Asunafo South District.
It is the last day for phase one of the biometric voters' registration exercise and yet three communities in the Western Region are not registered. Eight days after the commencement of the biometric registration exercise throughout the country, not a single person has been registered in three communities- Agemandiem, Old –Sawireso and Dome in the Juaboso District of the Western Region. The Ghanaian Times adds that there are a total of about 400 eligible voters in the three communities, and since the registration started a little over a week ago, not a single person has been registered.
The final news item for the day ending 2nd April, 2012 is that the Independent People's Party gets final certificate. The Electoral Commission (EC) has issued a final certificate to a new political party, Independent People's Party (IPP), to enable it to operate as a fully fledged party. The certification of IPP on Friday, coming on the heels of the Progressive People's Party (PPP), brings the number of political parties which have been certified by the EC to 19. Both the Daily Graphic and The Chronicle make this known to readers.
This daily news review is compiled by African Elections Project (AEP) Media Monitoring Centre, Accra, Ghana.
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