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Political Scientist and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr. Kwesi Jonah has urged students and the general public who were disenfranchised in the just ended limited voter registration exercise to take advantage of the continuous registration exercise which will soon become operational.
According to him, there is no need for the Electoral Commission to extend the limited voter registration exercise considering the fact that the constitution provides the opportunity for those disenfranchised to do so at a later date.
The University Students Association of Ghana hadaccused the Electoral Commission of disenfranchising students eligible to vote with their handling of the limited voters registration exercise on university campuses nationwide.
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This follows complaints about the number of registration centres on the various university campuses through Ghana, leading to lower numbers of students being registered than in previous exercises.
There have therefore been calls by some parties for the limited voter registration exercise to be extended following the above complaints, as well as confusion at some centres over faulty machines and long queues.
But, Dr. Jonah has strongly indicated that an extension of the exercise is not needed.
"There is no need for an extension because CI 91, and even CI 72, the law that CI 91 has come to replace, both make provisions for continuous voter registration. Anybody who has not been able to register in this limited registration exercise, will at a later time before the elections, I think two months before the elections, have the opportunity to walk to any district office of the EC and register," he told Radio Ghana.
"The students on campus who have not been able to register; they can still walk into any district office as soon as the continuous voter registration exercise becomes operational," he added.