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The National Coordinator of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), has appealed to the Electoral Commission (EC) to extend the limited voter registration exercise in the Bawku Municipality of the Upper East Region.
Albert Arhin says such a decision will help to stabilize the volatile situation in Bawku.
Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Friday, September 29, he noted that during the extension, the Commission can have enough machines to open additional centers for registration to enable eligible voters to exercise their rights.
“I will advise that since the registration ends on October 2, the EC can extend it for peace to prevail,” he suggested.
His comments come in the wake of the EC suspending the limited voter registration exercise due to tensions in the area.
Reports indicate that the suspension is due to disagreements between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The Upper East Regional Director of the Commission, Williams Obeng Darkwa, confirmed the incident to JoyNews.
However, he cited security concerns as the reason but would not comment on what went wrong.
“On point of service, we had little misunderstanding among active political players and therefore in the name of peace, we thought it was unsafe for our personnel and equipment to be exposed. Therefore, we had to put it on hold,” he told JoyNews.
According to him, despite the fact that the area is now calm, he is still waiting for approval from their superiors in Accra to carry on with the voter registration process.
However, the EC has refused to continue with the process since the two parties could not agree to a roadmap that would allow it to continue the registration of new voters.
The NDC failed to append their signature to the agreement document.
According to Mr Arhin, since the Bawku constituents are aggrieved about the halting of the exercise, the EC after an extension, should try to appease the people by registering them in more centers.
