The Electoral Commission (EC) on Monday appealed to the public to support the Commission to ensure a credible provisional register by participating in the upcoming exhibition exercise.

The Director of Training at the EC, Mr Michael Boadu, who made the appeal, said the Commission, had also put in place steps to remove the names of dead registrants, minors, and non-nationals from the list.

Mr Boadu said this at a day’s dialogue with women, youth, and persons with disabilities on the exhibition of voters’ registration.

He stated that the removal of the names of the deceased would require relatives to present the dead person voters identity card, death certificate, or burial permit.

The forum spearheaded by the Gender and Youth Unit of the EC seeks to educate marginalised groups such as women, faith-based groups, and other identifiable associations, youth groups, and Persons With Disability on the need to participate in the upcoming Exhibition exercise to avoid a stressful experience on election day.

Mr Boadu explained that challenging cases of minors and non-nationals were classified as major change and would require the petitioner to fill a form and present evidence of the claim during the exhibition exercise.

“The fellow who has been challenged will be notified and asked to appear before the District Registration Review Office at a date to provide documentary and oral evidence to justify his inclusion or not,” he said.

He said corrections that would require the re-printing of voters' cards are also considered as a major change, which requires that the applicant would be given a slip to go to the district office for it to be effected.

“Cases of a damaged card, missing cards, the inclusion of omitted names, change of name, age are also classified as major because one will have to present supporting details such as affidavits in the case of change of names to have it corrected,” he noted.

The commission, he said, would introduce a Short Message Service (SMS) platform, in which voters could check the accurateness of their information by sending their card numbers to the Short Code 1422.

Mr Boadu said voters who use the SMS platform and identify error would need to visit the district centers for the correction to be effected.

As part of the exercise, he said the Commission would conduct a test run with 500 Biometric Verification Devices at selected centres to check its function on Election Day and the likely challenges needed to be done to enable the Commission to find solutions to issues that may arise.

The Chairman in charge of Operations, Mr Samuel Tettey, reiterated that per Regulation 23(1) of C.I 91 of the Public Elections Regulations 2016, the EC will exhibit the Provisional Voters Register for inspection by Voters at all 33,367 Polling Stations throughout the country from Friday, September 18th to Friday, September 25th.

He said the week-long exercise will run from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm each day, including weekends.

“The exercise will enable voters to authenticate their eligibility to vote by ensuring that their details correctly input on the voters' register”.

Mr Tettey encouraged registrants to visit their Polling Stations with their voter’s ID cards to verify their details and verify their Polling Station details ahead of Election 2020.

He said the Commission would enforce stringent safety protocols at all Polling Stations throughout the country including the compulsory wearing of face-masks, the use of hand sanitizers, and the observance of the social distancing protocols.