Voter ID: EC to register eligible SHS students in schools

Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) will extend the ongoing new voter registration exercise to Senior High Schools (SHSs) across the country.

The Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr Serebour Quaicoe, confirmed to theghanareport.com that the exercise would be held from Friday, July 10 to Saturday, July 11, for students at their various campuses.

He explained that the Ghana Education Service (GES) wrote to the EC that the COVID-19 protocols for schools prevent students from going out of campus, and this will hamper the participation of eligible students.

After deliberations with officials, the EC outlined a plan to prevent the students from being disenfranchised by going to the schools to register them.

Because of that, mobile registration teams from registration centres close to SHSs will be dispatched to the schools to register applicants.

There is a possibility of an extension of the exercise where necessary.

The EC is considering about 700 schools across the country for the registration of students.

The plan was presented to political parties and their representatives at an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Thursday, July 9.

Reports from the meeting suggest that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) approved the plan while the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) rejected it.

The NDC pointed out that the new areas within the schools were not part of the gazetted centres.

Meanwhile, the EC has registered 2 million people after the first part of phase one of the registration exercise. The registration is in five phases and will be moved from one centre to another after each phase.

The exercise began on June 30 and will end on August 6.