EC failed to engage political parties on registering SHS students – Haruna Iddrisu

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu has expressed concerns over the Electoral Commission’s “disrespect” for gazetted centres in the ongoing voter registration exercise in Senior High Schools.

The two-day exercise is to offer final year students of voting age the opportunity to be on the new voters roll.

The Minority Leader said there should have been consultations with the political parties before the exercise began.

“The Electoral Commission published registration centres in a gazette, they should respect what was published. That is for the purpose of transparency and accountability in the registration exercise. But where students are domiciled in particular constituencies, it is for them to do a wider consultation with the political parties and make a determination that guarantees the students rights to vote.”

Mr. Iddrisu’s concerns come in the wake of a suit by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) challenging the Electoral Commission’s decision to organise voter registration exercise in Senior High Schools (SHS).

The EC commenced a two-day registration at premises of the various senior high schools beginning July 10, 2020.

The exercise is supposed to end today [Saturday, July 11, 2020].

The decision to commence registration in SHSs was communicated to political parties after an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Thursday, July 9, 2020.

This was after some members of the public raised concerns about the exclusion of SHS students from the ongoing voter registration exercise.

 

 

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