Matters arising, Ghana's Limited Voter Registration Exercise

The Electoral Commission (EC) announced last week the dates for the Limited Voter Registration exercise at its district offices across the country in spite of a pending interlocutory injunction filed at the Supreme Court by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and four other minority parties.

The exercise started yesterday as planned with a rather low turnout which some political parties have attributed to the Electoral Commission's (EC’s) poor policies particularly, their decision to conduct the exercise at the district offices. 

A critical examination of the social media landscape has also revealed that issues of transportation to the district offices and the need for a guarantor to register is a challenge to many especially the rural folk. 

Jamper Cola a commenter on the Adekyensroma UTV morning show lamented that “I have my reservations on the limited registration exercise ongoing. I don't know why NDC didn't agree to use a Ghana card for voting. If we really want to move this country to the next level, the money spent on this limited registration could have been invested in Ghana card registration with another window opened this time for another registration. This could have helped to register others who haven't done theirs and extend from this time till next year June. 

As many have commended the EC for this decision as a way of cutting down on cost and ensuring transparency and efficiency of the exercise many have also called for reforms and condemned this move suggesting the Commission has other intentions of helping the government to rig the elections.

Another with the name T.k said, “My name is T.k from Tema Community one site 20, this NPP gov't must be very careful, if they want to know them through colours of our temperamental they should continue with their mafia tactics registration that'll go in favour of the ruling party NPP, we shall show them (SHOWDOWN)."

Analysis

During a 2-hour period, we conducted an analysis of comments from Metro TV, TV3, UTV, and Adom FM's social media pages regarding the Electoral Commission's (EC) decision not to have the exercise at the electoral level.

 A total of 1,677 comments were recorded during this period. 8 commenters expressed support for the EC's decision, emphasizing its potential to reduce costs. 4 commenters remained neutral, urging all eligible voters to utilize the registration exercise. However, 112 commenters strongly disagreed with the EC's position, believing it would disenfranchise many citizens. They also expressed concerns that the EC's stance might indicate an intention to deliberately disenfranchise eligible voters and introduce ineligible voters into the registration process.

Additionally, a significant portion of the comments, 1,553 were unrelated to the discussed issue. They primarily consisted of promotions for various products and services, as well as greetings to the show's guests and host.

Observations

While the social media pages had high viewership, the number of comments directly related to the discussed topic was relatively low. The majority of comments on these platforms included greetings, advertisements, and unrelated discussions.

Conclusion

Based on our analysis, it is evident that a substantial portion of the public disagrees with the EC's decision not to establish multiple registration centres. These dissenting voices suspect ulterior motives behind the EC's stance, which could erode public confidence in the electoral process if not addressed.