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Registration of prisoners in limbo

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The Ghana Prisons Service is uncertain whether registration of inmates will take place should the Electoral Commission apply the same requirements of proof of identity for registering potential voters. The EC has expressed readiness in registering prisoners in the 4th phase of the biometric registration exercise. But Public Affairs officer of the Prisons service, Courage Atsem has revealed in an interview with Joy FM that most prisoners do not have any form of authentic identity as is required by the EC. According to the Public Affairs Officer, unless the EC lowers its strict demands of proof identity, most prisoners would not be able to register. Out of about 3,000 inmates, only 400 of them were able to provide a form of ID in the form of National Health Insurance Scheme card which in itself is not an acceptable proof of nationality by the EC. The acting Director of the Public Affairs of the EC, Christian Owusu Parry however insists that the EC requirements for the registration of voters remains unchanged. He added that there has not been a decision to waive some of the requirements for any special group of people. He maintains that when they go to the prisons to register they will used the known requirement until a decision is taken to treat prisoners differently. The biometric voters’ registration exercise is in its final phase and is scheduled to come to a close on May 5. As at the end of the third phase, 10.5 million persons have registered.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.