The ongoing Limited Voter Registration Exercise has resumed in the Asokore Mampong Municipality after the process was halted on Thursday.
A disagreement between agents of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) compelled officials of the Electoral Commission (EC) in the area to suspend the process.
[contextly_sidebar id=”DVBACFbpTQBvhyk91CEUZ6YqQ5cInO1m”]Police and military personnel were deployed to the Asokore Mampong Municipal Office of the EC to maintain order following the confusion.
Following the impasse, the EC officials in the Ashanti Region met with the leadership of both parties and security heads to resolve the matter.
The leadership of the parties also signed an undertaking to assure their compliance with the rules governing the exercise.
Ashanti Regional Director for the Electoral Commission, Benjamin Bannor Bio, explained to Citi News that the tensions stemmed from confusion over the identity of students who were being given preferential treatment in addition to the elderly, persons with disability and pregnant women.
“Because school is in sessions, we decided to extend it to the students who would be coming from their schools to come and register so that when they come they will not have to spend too much time there,” he said.
But there was some suspicion from the party representatives about some identities and there was a fight over the attempt to register them, Mr. Bio recounted, adding that “the problem was pure identification so what we arrived at is that the schools will be rotating.”
The school authorities were also required to list the number of students coming from their schools “so that it would aid in identifying the students.”
