The Electoral Commission will begin the exhibition of the provisional voters register from Friday, November 3 to Tuesday, November 7, 2023, at all the 38,622 polling stations across the country.
This forms part of preparation towards the conduct of the district level elections slated for Tuesday, December 19, 2023, a Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations at the Commission, Samuel Tettey, said at a news conference in Accra yesterday.
The exhibition exercise will start at 7 a.m. and end at 6 p.m. throughout the period of the exercise.
“The purpose of the exhibition exercise is to allow prospective voters to verify their details i.e. name, age, sex etc. as captured during the registration exercise and make requests for amendments or insertions where necessary.
“The Commission is urging all applicants especially those who registered in the just-ended registration exercise at the District Offices of the Commission to visit the exhibition centres to ascertain whether they were assigned to their correct polling stations or not. They are not to go to the District Offices to verify their details,” Mr Tettey said.
At the exhibition centre, he said requests like inclusion of omitted names, objection to names of unqualified voters on the register, removal of names of deceased voters from the register, replacement of poor quality or damaged Voter ID Cards, could be made.
Correction to wrong spelling of names, correction to wrong registration centre codes, amendment to other registration details like age and sex which may have occurred as a result of clerical error can also be made, he said.
According to Mr Tettey, District Registration Review Officers who are District Court Magistrates have been appointed in all the 268 districts to receive the provisional voters registers and other lists and forms containing complaints and objections that were raised by voters during the exhibition exercise from the District Officer and make a determination on each of the cases and endorse each page of the register to authenticate it.
He advised voters to go to the exhibition centres with their voter identity cards to verify their details, adding that registered voters who failed to bring along their Voter ID Cards could also verify their details.
It is also allowed, he said, for people to verify the voter details of a relation or friend but one cannot request for corrections in the absence of the owner of the Voter ID Card.
“To effect major changes or corrections, for example, complete change of the name of a voter or addition of new names, change of polling station code, change of photographs and inclusion of omitted names, the voter is required to go to the District Office of the Commission for a biometric authentication of the voter before the change is effected,” he outlined.
To ensure the transparency of the exercise, he said, persons accompanying registered voters who are physically incapacitated and persons accredited by the Commission, including party representatives, journalists and observers could also visit the exhibition centres.
“All exhibition materials needed for the exhibition exercise have been procured and sent to the regions and in adequate quantities,” he assured and urged registered voters to “show interest in the exercise to assist the Commission update and produce a credible Voters Register for the forthcoming district level elections.”
On illegitimate people on the register, Mr Tettey said the limited voter registration exercise witnessed suspected minors queuing to register; an act he said was criminal.
He called on relatives, community leaders, and any person qualified to be registered as a voter, to visit the exhibition centre with information on the deceased to have them removed.
For those who can’t visit the centre, he said they could do so through the short code *713*81# for a fee of 0.50p.