30,462 Challenged over eligibility – EC

• Posted on August 10, 2020August 10, 2020
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

A total of 30,462 applicants have been challenged over their eligibility to acquire the new voter’s identification card, the Electoral Commission has said on Friday.

This constitutes 0.20 per cent of the provisional total number of applicants registered, Dr Bossman Eric Asare, Deputy Chairman in charge of Corporate Services, Electoral Commission (EC), said at the eighth edition of the ‘Let the Citizen Know’ series of the commission.
He said one of the ways to guarantee the credibility of the voter’s register was the utilisation of the process for challenging eligibility, as enshrined in law.
He, therefore, expressed regret that although that process was working well, there had been instances where agents of political parties had intentionally abused the process by challenging people in the stronghold of their political opponent.
“Democracy thrives when all qualified applicants are allowed to take part in the political process,” he stated. “Parties should educate their agents to avoid preventing persons who are otherwise qualified to register to enable them to do so and exercise their franchise,” the deputy chairman said.
Dr Asare said in terms of percentages, the Oti Region recorded the highest cases, with 1,766 applications challenged, representing 0.49 per cent.
Ahafo Region, with 1,155, representing 0.37 per cent, followed; the Volta Region – 3,290, representing 0.36 per cent; and Bono Region had 1,984 cases, representing 0.31 per cent, in that order.
Western North recorded 1,317 challenges, translating into 0.29 per cent; Savannah – 796, representing 0.29 per cent; Central – 3,454, representing 0.22 per cent; Northern – 2,169, representing 0.21 per cent, and Upper West – 246, representing 0.20 per cent.
Others are Greater Accra – 5,302, representing 0.15 per cent; Ashanti Regions – 3,922, translating into 0.13 per cent; Western Region recorded 1,065 of the applications challenged, representing 0.10 per cent.
The rest are Bono East – 1,134, representing 0.19 per cent; Eastern – 1, 715, representing 0.11 per cent; North Eastern – 228, representing 0.08 per cent; and Upper East – 919, representing 0.05 per cent.
Dr Asare said from the table it was clear that Greater Accra’s 5302, followed by Ashanti’s 3,922, lead the pack in nominal terms.
He, however, said, in real terms when the numbers were adjusted for the total registered per region, the leading regions with most challenged cases were Oti, at 0.49 per cent; Ahafo at 0.37 per cent; Volta at 0.36 per cent; Bono at 0.31 per cent; Western North at 0.29 per cent, and Savannah at 0.29 per cent.
“Interestingly, all these are border regions, except Ahafo and Bono East. This should suggest that most of the challenges would be emanating from the citizenship of the applicants. Also, the residential and age statuses of applicants certainly must feature prominently in these challenges,” he added.