Replacement of voters’ ID cards in Cape Coast at a slow pace

The replacement exercise being carried out by the Electoral Commission (EC), to replace lost identity cards which begun last Friday is going on slowly in the Cape Coast metropolis with a call on the Commission to intensify publicity on it because a lot of Ghanaians are not aware of the exercise.

Mr Ahmed Tijani, replacement officer at the Adisadel Mosque centre who spoke to the GNA on Monday, said the centre had received 26 complaints of lost Voter's ID cards since the exercise begun on Friday.

According to Mr Tijani, when people reported of missing cards he subjected them to questioning and educated them that they could be prosecuted if it was found out that their cards were not missing because it would mean double registration.

He said some of the people upon hearing that went back and came to report that they have found their cards.

Mr Tijani said among some of the problems being encountered at the various centres were that of people who wanted to change their names on the ID cards, reporting of missing cards but when probed further it came out that they wanted their new names on their cards but were advised against replacing them since the exercise was for missing cards.

At the AME Zion centre at Aboom, the officer, Mr Francis Kuranchie appealed to the EC to intensify publicity on the exercise since a lot of people were not aware of the exercise, while the few who knew were confusing the exercise with the re-opening of the registration exercise.

He said 13 people had so far reported of their missing cards since last Friday.

At the Kru town and the Urban Clinic Adisadel centres, 38 and 14 people respectively had registered for the replacement of their cards since Friday and two each this morning at about 0740hrs.

Meanwhile, the Regional Director of the EC, Mr Samuel Tettey, has expressed satisfaction about the exercise and said a centre had been selected in each electoral area for the exercise and that Cape Coast has 42 centres in its 42 electoral areas and urged people who had their cards missing to report for it to be replaced.

The exercise ends on Sunday, April 23.

Source: GNA