The Electoral Commission has insisted it will open only 5,000 polling to enable Ghanaians who have attained the voting age of 18 to register. The Chairman of the EC, Dr. Afari Djan said the 5,000 polling stations were sufficient for the exercise. He was responding to calls by the People’s National Convention (PNC) on the commission to conduct the registration exercise in all the over 22,000 polling stations in the country. The general Secretary of the PNC, Bernard Mornah told Joy News that limiting the exercise to only 5,000 polling stations would disable many people from registering and subsequently from voting. He said the distance between people’s residence and the designated polling stations could serve as a disincentive to prospective voters. But the EC Chairman said the exercise was not a nationwide registration exercise and so did not require opening of all polling stations. “Should we open the register in all polling stations and go and sit there idle”, he asked. The registration exercise in May will be preceded by a voter Identification Card replacement exercise starting from Friday, March 7, to Sunday, March 16, 2008. The exercise will enable voters who lost their voter IDs to replace them.