There was a widespread false start of the Limited Voters Registration exercise on day one in the Ashanti region.
At the Regional Offices of the Electoral Commission in Kumasi, where a cluster of the Submetro Centres had opened, our team of reporters observed utter frustration among the many prospective voter registrants who were struggling to go through the process to secure the Voter ID Cards.
The Returning Officer for MANHYIA Submetro, Antwi Boasiako, said the exercise, which was supposed to start at 8 a.m., eventually began at noon due to technical challenges.
He said the centre has a daily registration target of 120 but was likely not to meet it on the first day.
At Asante Mampong, the situation was no different, as the registration officials also had technical issues to contend with until noon.
The Mampong Municipal Elections Officer, Kwabena Karikari, told our Correspondent that, as at 1 p.m. on day one, only 13 persons had been successfully registered but was highly optimistic that once the initial challenges had been resolved, subsequent days’ registration would be hitch-free.
Some of the prospective registrants shared with GBCNews their motivation for enduring the delays to register.
They said they felt excited to have the opportunity to register and to take part in choosing the next President and MPs eventually.
Meanwhile, the Mampong Municipal Elections Officer, Kwabena Karikari, disclosed that his outfit has been granted permission to deploy a mobile registration team to an identified hard-to-reach community for just two days to allow eligible voters in those areas to exercise their franchise.
