The ongoing voters registration exercise is said to be enjoying high patronage, but with some teething challenges. A nation wide visit to some of the registration centres by Joy reporters and correspondents on Friday indicated no clear guidelines existed for registration officials to ascertain the certainty of age and nationality of prospective voters. This has culminated into some confrontation between political party agents at some registration centres. However Mr. Albert Kofi Arhin Director of elections at the Electoral Commission (EC) says there was no need for any confrontation as the EC has its own mechanisms to rectify such problems when they arise. Speaking to Joy News’ Matilda Asante, Mr. Arhin admitted the registration officials could not verify the authenticity of the ages and nationality of prospective voters, but said those with doubts and contrary evidence would be made to fill a challenge form to state their case. A registration tribunal made up of the EC, political parties, and people within the community, would be set up to investigate the matter, he added. He therefore advised party agents and other interest groups to refrain from taking the law into their own hands. Mr. Arhin was surprised over the allegation that party functionaries bus prospective voters to the registration centres saying “it is an issue that is very disheartening.” He said the exercise was voluntary and people should be made to go there on their own accord without any form of influence When asked what the EC was doing to repair damaged cameras and other equipments at the various centres, the director of elections said , technicians were going round to every region to repair those damaged equipments. “All of those damaged equipments have been repaired and they are being used effectively now” he confirmed. These challenges notwithstanding, Mr. Arhin believes the exercise was a good beginning, but gave the assurance that the little challenges would be resolved. Author: Nathan Gadugah