The Electoral Commission has begun its limited voter registration exercise to enable persons who could not register during the last exercise and those who turned 18 years after 2012 to register.

The exercise will take place at 6,000 centres across the country, ending on Wednesday August 13, 2014.

The registration exercise had been slated for June 20 this year, however, it was postponed due to a law suit by Peoples National Convention (PNC) National Youth Organiser, Abu Ramadan, and a lawyer, Kwasi Danso-Acheampong, challenging the EC’s use of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards as mode of identification.

The two persons argued that the use of NHIS cards as an acceptable identification for registration was in contravention of the law and could allow non-Ghanaians to also register and vote during elections.

The Supreme Court on July 30, 2014 upheld the application challenging the constitutionality of Regulation 1(3) D of C.I 72, which allowed the Electoral Commission to use health insurance cards for the voters’ registration exercise.

The EC has since announced that, in compliance with the Supreme Court ruling,  it will not accept national health insurance cards as a form of identification for the process.

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) will deploy 350 of its field volunteers to observe the exercise.

CODEO observers will be deployed in all the 216 districts in Ghana and will conduct roaming observation at the designated registration centers, according to a release issued and signed by Dr. Franklin Oduro, Project Manager and Acting CODEO Coordinator.