Biometric: 6.5 million register

Sixteen days into the 40-day biometric voters registration exercise, the Electoral Commission (EC) has registered 6.5 million voters.
According to a source at the EC, the number of applicants registered so far was 35 per cent ahead of target, since the EC had only expected to register about 4.8 million voters during the period.
Unfortunately, it said, the number of cases of multiple registration had also shot up from 600 to 2,000 and was expected to increase since the matching processing was ongoing.
All the multiple registration would be sent to the Adjudication Committee of the EC for onward prosecution by the police. The names of those who had been found to have engaged in multiple registration would be deleted from the register and for the next five years they would not be allowed to register as voters.
According to the source, the Ashanti Region topped the provisional statistics for phase one (first 10 days) with 861,236, followed by Greater Accra with 835,318; Eastern, 422,050; Western, 415,377; Brong Ahafo, 375,608.
The rest are Volta, 328,015; Central, 325,282; Northern, 311,751; Upper East, 133,776, and Upper West, 112,674.
The source said the specific number of registered voters region by region would be known later, since the data were still being compiled and double-checked.
After the first 10 days, the EC had registered 4.1 million people and recorded 600 cases of multiple registration using the de-duplication process.
It indicated that Ghana’s biometric registration could be described as successful so far, not only because of the registration rate but also because the EC was able to undertake the de-duplication process simultaneously with the registration, a situation which is unprecedented in Africa, making Ghana a pioneer.
The source also commended Ghanaians for their commitment to register in their numbers, their openness to embrace new technology and also protect the integrity of the register with vigilance.