Tema voters respond favourably to exercise

Story: Rose Hayford Darko, Tema
17/03/08
The Tema Metropolitan Electoral Officer, Mr Michael Boadu, has expressed satisfaction with the rate at which eligible voters in the metropolis are responding to the replacement of voter identification cards exercise.
He said the Electoral Commission (EC) was not expecting that many people would turn up for the exercise because it was meant only for the few who might have misplaced or lost their cards or had them destroyed.
Mr Boadu said the exercise had a smooth start in the Tema metropolis with an average record of eleven replacements at the centres within three to four hours after the exercise had started on Friday.
He noted that the replacement exercise was very necessary because of unexpected eventualities which could result in some people being dispossessed of their voter identification cards.
He indicated that the Tema metropolis, including Ashaiman and Adenta had 59 replacement centres at various electoral areas.
Mr Boadu explained that Ashaiman and Adenta were included because at the time of compilation of the voters register, they were part of Tema.
He said his office was closely monitoring the exercise to ensure that no one took advantage of it for personal interest.
Mr Boadu appealed to residents who had their cards destroyed, defaced or lost but had not gone to register for new ones to endeavour to do that before the close of the stipulated 10 days.
He said the usual habit of doing things late would not apply in this case because the EC would not entertain any complaints after the period.
When the Daily Graphic went round some of the officials claimed that the patronage was normal because there were some more days ahead.
At the Uhuru Electoral Area which had five polling stations, the replacement officer, Mr Joseph Kwofie, said they did not expect to have people rushing to have their cards replaced because they might not have their cards missing or defaced.
He said the few people who went to register were educated on the implication of having more than one voter ID card.
Mr Kwofie was of the view that some people might think of hiding under the guise of having lost their cards and by so doing register twice but warned that there was a mechanism which the EC would use to detect that anomaly and the culprits would be punished according to the electoral law.