The Electoral Commission’s voter exhibition exercise across the country ended on Tuesday with a low turnout at most centres.
The exercise, which was intended to identify and correct errors in the new voters’ register, was marked by an obvious lack of enthusiasm and attendance, raising concerns about voter engagement and participation in the upcoming district level election.
The seven-day exercise, which began on Wednesday, November 1, 2023, provided people with the option, among other things, to request actions such as the inclusion of omitted names and the removal of deceased voters from the registration.
A visit by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) to several exhibition centres in the Ledzokuku , Krowor and Tema Metropolis revealed widespread lack of interest in the voter exhibition.
At Ledzokuku and Krowor, the GNA noticed that electoral officers had little to do as turnout was on a low side.
An EC official who spoke on condition of anonymity attributed the low turnout to the lack of publicity regarding the verification process.
At Oninku Drive JHS, a total of six exhibition centres saw extremely low turnout, with only sixty-two people out of the 2,777 registered voters successfully verifying their names on the voter’s register.
A similar pattern emerged in the Oninku Primary Center, where only eighteen of the 857 registered voters attempted to verify their names on the register.
The Presby Church Community 1, which has five exhibition centres and a total of 2,777 registered voters, also had an extremely low turnout, with only twenty-six potential voters taking the initiative to verify their names, highlighting the general disinterest in the exercise.
At the TDC Rent Office in Tema, which had five polling centres and a total of 1,761 registered voters, only 69 people took steps to verify their names on the register.
At Community Five Number One Basic School, which had nine polling centres, just 110 people turned up to verify their names on the register out of a total of 2,895 eligible voters.
According to several EC officials at the exhibition centres, the trend of poor participation in the exercise, underscored a greater concern about voter apathy in district level elections, which may extend to the general election in 2024.
The exhibition exercise aimed at enabling eligible voters to verify their personal information, such as name, age, and gender, as acquired during the limited registration process, and to seek amendments or insertions as needed.
It was also intended to assist voters in locating their polling stations on election day.
