EC officers for exhibition exercise ‘poorly trained’ – MP

The Member of Parliament for Ayawaso West Wuogon, Emmanuel Kyeremateng Agarko, has criticized the Electoral Commission for what he said is the failure of the Commission to adequately train its officers deployed for the voters' register exhibition exercise.

According to him, some EC officials overseeing the exhibition across the country, are clueless on some of the rules and processes governing the exercise.

Speaking on Citi FM's news analysis programme, The Big Issue, Mr. Kyeremateng Agarko said he was almost prevented from having his name verified by one of the officials because he did not have his voters' ID card with him.

“I think that some of the people are poorly trained. When I went, the girl there told me that if I don't have my card, I can't verify. She told me no, she said that was the rule and that I should go and find my card. I knew she was wrong but I didn't want to tell her who I was. After I had finished all of this, I told her that I was asking about it because I was the Member of Parliament.”

He advised the EC to put a lot more emphasis on the education of their officials who are overseeing the exhibition exercise, and those who will be on duty on election day, to prevent any of the challenges of the previous election from recurring.

“I think the Electoral Commission should properly instruct the people they employ. We have seen this happen in an election that became a cliffhanger. I beg of them, as part of their preparation, they must clearly instruct the people that are working for them on what to do.”

Enough personnel for voter exhibition
In a statement issued on Thursday, the EC admitted that, the turnout at the various exhibition centres was lower than had been projected, but added that the Commission had deployed enough personnel across the country.

“Reports from all 29,000 centres across the country show that, apart from the lower than expected response, the exercise is progressing smoothly.”

“The Commission has deployed the adequate personnel and equipment to ensure that all registered voters spend as little time as possible at the various centres to check their details and get their fingerprints verified.”

The EC also stated that, over 1 million registered voters had their names verified  in the first three days of the exercise.

The exercise, which is expected to go on for the next 21 days, began on Monday, July 18, 2016.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana