The Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP K. Ayensu Opare Addo, has pointed out that his outfit is doing everything possible to ensure that any disagreement over the ages of people taking part in the on-going voter registration exercise is resolved. According to him, the attention of the Regional Police Command had been drawn to a number of skirmishes characterizing the ongoing voter registration exercise in the region, saying they would do everything possible to make people have faith in the exercise. In a press release signed by the Regional Police Boss, he said much as the true ages of persons could not be ascertained just by looking at their faces, the Police think it was also not the duty of members of political parties to check the ages of people taking part in the registration exercise. He warned that the Police in the region would not allow some selfish individuals to hold the exercise to ransom. DCOP Opare Addo advised persons with doubts about any aspect of the exercise to make complaints through the ‘Challenge Form’ at the centres rather than take the law into their own hands. “Any unlawful means of tackling the situation will not be countenanced by the police.” He said his outfit had also received intelligence reports that some people were assisting registered voters from different areas to do double registration so as to give their political parties undue advantage over their opponents. DCOP Opare Addo stressed that the reports also indicated that there were other people who were trying to create confusion in the region as they moved from one registration centre to another with long lists of names of individuals and their house numbers with a claim that such people do not qualify to take part in the exercise. According to him, other complaints were that members of some political parties were taking the names of unsuspecting potential voters under the guise of registering them, thus depriving them of their rights to register. He stressed that it was based on the above complaints that the Police Service was warning the general public not to try in any way to take the law into their own hands but rather alert the police when they come across such incidents. that double and minor registrations were against the electoral laws, and added that the police would not spare any person found to be indulging in any of such acts. He indicated that the police in the region were taking stringent measures to prevent any clashes. DCOP Opare Addo therefore advised leaders of the various political parties and their supporters to eschew acts aimed at giving their parties undue advantage over the others. “This is not only unfair, but it also has the potential of derailing the peace and security of the region. It is also a threat to our infant democracy.” Source: Daily Guide