The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has directed its officers to register new voters offline if they encounter difficulty with the online registration system in the ongoing Limited Voter Registration exercise.

This followed reports of network connectivity challenges related to the online registration system which delayed the registration process in some centres on Tuesday morning.

The EC had explained that the online registration system would make it possible to immediately detect double registration at the point of registration.

Dr Serebour Quaicoe, Director of Electoral-Services at the EC, told the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday evening that there were “initial hitches” with the system on the first day.

He said the situation would normalise as the exercise progressed.

“We have asked them (officers) to switch offline if they encounter challenges.

“All those registered offline, the system will review their identities and if their names appear on the multiple list they will not vote,” Dr Quaicoe said.

Dr Quaicoe said the registration exercise was generally smooth except for some disruptions caused by the rains in most parts of the country.

The registration, which is in accordance with Article 45 of the 1992 Constitution, is underway at all 268 District Offices of the Commission.

The exercise was scheduled to commence at 0800 hours but delays in connecting to the EC’s online registration system in some centres monitored by the Ghana News Agency led to the exercise starting as late as 1000 hours in some of the centres.

The exercise closed at 0500 hours and will continue until October 2, 2023.