As December beckons, another Presidential and Parliamentary Elections will be conducted nationwide and Ghanaians who have recently turned 18 are currently participating in the ongoing Electoral Commission’s limited voter registration exercise.
President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo is urging those who have attained the statutory age and want to vote in December to take advantage of this limited voter registration. “This is because your right to vote is your power.”
The Electoral Commission has started a nationwide limited registration exercise for persons who turned eighteen. The exercise began yesterday, May 7, and is expected to end on May 20.
First-time voters and persons who wish to own a Voter’s Card are, therefore, encouraged to take advantage of the window and take up their civic responsibilities. The Electoral Commission Chairperson, Madam Jean Mensa, says the exercise aims at registering approximately 623,000 first-time voters across the country.
Already, the power outages seem to be negatively impacting the registration of voters as delays and other constraints mar the process. In that regard, all district offices have been asked to rent generators to ensure continuous voter registration services.
From the fore-going, the power outages are really taking a toll on economic activity in the country to the extent that even a constitutionally-mandated exercise like the limited voter registration is being negatively impacted.
Even though Jean Mensa has assured that the ongoing power crisis will not affect the process as standby generators are provided for back-ups at various centres, we can all attest to the problem as extra costs will be incurred.
It, thus, makes it incumbent on the energy ministry to address the nagging problem because even though the President assured on May 1 that that the phenomenon has been addressed, we all know that that is far from the truth.
