The Member of Parliament for Anyaa Sowutuom, Dr. Adomako Kissi, says it behoves on the Electoral Commission to provide an open electorate registration system that furnishes equal opportunity for new voters to register their names on the voters’ roll.

He was speaking in relation to the Electoral Commission’s Limited Voters’ Registration exercise currently ongoing at EC district offices across the country.

The EC’s decision to conduct the exercise at their district offices only has faced serious backlash from opposition parties, civil society organisations and the general public who say the decision could potentially disenfranchise millions of young Ghanaians who would be unable to access these district offices.

The opposition party and one individual have dragged the EC to court over the matter.

Meanwhile, at registration centres across the country, long queues, faulty machines, slow networks and exasperation have characterised the exercise.

According to Dr. Kissi, the EC needs to rethink their approach to make the registration process less burdensome for new voters.

Making a case for his constituency, he called on the EC to create two more registration centres to facilitate the easy registration of voters.

“I think it imposes a bit more burden on individual parties trying to mobilize people to register. For a large constituency like Anyaa Sowutuom, it appears having 3 centers would have been an ideal situation to reduce the burden of commute, time spent in line and load of work on one station.

“Though the EC has done well and has no discriminatory intent, I want to plead for 2 additional centers to be added before the registrations process ends. Preferably,  Awoshie, Anyaa, Ablekuma, Agape and Olebu enclave as one, Santamaria, Aunty Aku, Sowutuom and Kwashiebu as another, then lastly Tabora, Chantan and Lomnava as another enclave.

“This would reduce the burden on the voters, and people mobilizing new voters. At any rate the EC has many staff members willing to work on the field and are well trained to do so. I wish the EC can entertain the appeal being made by new voters and people working hard to ensure the smooth operation of the Electoral Commission. We wish to deny no eligible voter the ability to register during the next 2 weeks,” he said.

He stated that the idea that the inconvenience of long distance travelling to the district offices to register is not an important issue to support the further decentralization of the registration process must be eschewed.

“We need to improve on standard practice in this new era of digitization. Relevant consideration must be given to Anyaa Sowutuom to as to make the process less stressful. Granted smaller issues of a slow system will not be amplified, I think if more processing locations are provided, we will all gain,” he said.

“I wish to make a case that voter registrations for very large constituencies like Anyaa Sowutuom must be accomplished in a less burdensome way. The issue of getting more security for an overburdened center will not even be relevant. We want to offer an easy way to register to our new voters and this may reflect in the upcoming elections,” he added.

“There is ample support for allowing for more centers in order to reduce the burden on the people trying to register, their parents and other stake holders. Considering the historical background and the highly politicized sequence of events leading to the registrations, I’m of the opinion that large constituencies like mine must be carefully looked at and allowed to have more than one location for the program. We won’t say the process is unlawful, but rather burdensome for one major stakeholder, that is the new voter,” he stressed.