Ghanaians have been blamed for not heeding to the Electoral Commission’s advice on who is eligible to register at the on-going voters’ registration exercise. The failure to listen to the EC’s guidelines; has partly been attributed to large crowds at various registration centres. The Electoral Commission’s Director of Public Affairs, told the host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah on Monday, “Unfortunately Ghanaians are trying to be more difficult than we expect.” Christian Owusu Parry, said despite the wide publicity and education indicating specific persons who can register, yet, non-qualified persons are trooping into electoral areas to register. The registration exercise which started on 31st July is expected to end on 10th August. Only people who are 18 and above and are first-time voters are qualify to register. An estimated number of six hundred thousand to one million people, hopefully, would be covered in the ten-day exercise. Mr. Parry said people who do not fall within this range, go to the centres, expecting EC officials to register them. He entreated potential voters who have misplaced their voters I.D cards to visit district offices of the Commission for replacement. He ruled out the question of whether the set backs might be due to the lack of adequate financial commitment on the part of the government. He emphasized that any requests made by the EC to the government have been met. Mr. Parry said the EC provided only 2500 works stations instead of the 5000 due to experience. Throwing more light on it, he said, there were low turn out in previous exercises, citing an instance where only four people showed up in an electoral area for the entire replacement exercise. He assured that all would be covered and appealed to applicants to exercise restraint. However, some political party members have also accused the EC of being adamant to concerns raised during Inter Party Advisory Committee meetings, which they believed could have dealt with the current situation. Ofosu Ampofo, National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress said, he “disagrees completely” with the EC saying it has done enough education and publicity on the exercise. Story by Isaac Essel