The African Electoral Institute has noticed at the end of day-one of the Provisional Voters Register (PVR) exhibition for the 2024 general elections through its observers on the ground that some EC officials refused to apply, or rather they misapplied the prescribed exhibition procedures at some exhibition centres across the country.
The Institute has come across centres where the EC Exhibition Officials are turning voters away because they do not have their Voter ID cards with them.
Some voters were even turned away because they had their old cards with them. In other instances, some voters who came to check for family and friends with their relevant cards were also turned away.
The above observed conduct of the EC officials is contrary to what the officials are instructed to do as contained in their own training manual.
Referencing pages 10, 11 and 12 of the EC Training Manual for Exhibition 2024, as captured under chapter 4 (Exhibition Procedures) of the training manual, the EC directs the following:
1. Procedure *3.4.3- Assisting Persons WITHOUT voter ID cards* A person may check his/her details from the Provisional Voters Register, *even without his/her voter ID card.”*
2. Procedure *3.4.2- Assisting Persons WITH voter ID card* (f) …Where the picture does not resemble the bearer/holder, the Exhibition Officer can only confirm to the holder whether the particulars of *the actual card owner* are correct on the register. The holder of such a card must not be allowed to request for changes even if there are errors.
AEI wish to further inform the public that, by the EC’s training manual, at page 12; it is only when voters are “requesting for changes (whether minor or major)” that they “are required to provide their Voter ID cards.
Beside the above, AEI wishes to summarise for the Ghanaian public *some salient dos and don’ts* for this 2024 Exhibition based on Regulations 22(1) and 23(1) of Constitutional Instrument (C.I. 91).
*DOS*
• *Verification*: Voters can verify their registration details, ensuring accuracy and correctness.
• *Correction*: Voters can correct errors or omissions in their registration details.
• *Inclusion*: Voters can apply for their omitted name(s) to be included in the final register
• *Objection and Exclusion*: Voters can object and/or apply for exclusion names of the deceased or ineligible voters from the register.
*DON’Ts:*
• *Impersonation:* It is illegal to impersonate a voter or an accredited person at an exhibition centre for whatever reason
• *Violence:* It is unlawful and a crime to engage in any form of violence at an exhibition centre
• *Destruction:* It is unlawful to destroy or damage the Provisional Voters Register or any property belonging to the State at the Exhibition centre.
In conclusion, the African Electoral Institute wish to admonish all Ghanaians that the Exhibition of the Provisional Voters register is a critical step in the electoral process of Ghana and plays a vital role in ensuring a free, fair, and credible election as such, every qualified Ghanaian voter should do well to participate in this 2024 Exhibition Exercise as patriotic citizens.
African Electoral Institute thereby reminds the EC officials to adhere to its standard training procedure to make the provisional voter exhibition exercise smooth and painless for the voter.
SIGNED:
*Deputy Director of Communications and ExternalRelations*
*Joshua Nii Adjin-Adjin Tettey*
*0540904550*
*HEAD OF ELECTORAL SECURITY DEPARTMENT*
*EX WO1 (Alhaji) Yussif Mahamah*
*(0243311965)*
*About Us:*
African Electoral Institute ( AEI) is a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) founded to deliver sustainable electoral solutions to Emerging and Developed Democracies to strengthen, augment, and build electoral stakeholders capacity and participation on electoral issues through electoral education on voter’s rights and freedom, electoral research, election monitoring, election observation, election results collation, election security awareness and training of polling agents and elections directors underscoring the fact that “elections are won at the polling stations’’ and the participation of all identifiable electoral stakeholders in an electoral process such as Political Parties, Governmental Institutions, underpinning transparency and accountability for a free, fair, and credible elections in Africa and the wider world.
We are on: africanelectoralinstitute.com
Motto: “Integrity of Choice”
