Mrs Jean Mensa, EC Boss

The Electoral Commission (EC) will from tomorrow 18th to Friday 25th September 2020 display the provisional voters register for public inspection.

The exhibition exercise, which includes the weekends, will take place in all 33,367 polling centers across the country from 7:00am to 6:00pm.

All registered voters are therefore encouraged to visit their respective centers to verify their details to ensure they are able to cast their ballots in the December 7 general elections.

The EC chairperson, Mrs Jean Mensa, who disclosed this at a press briefing today, indicated that the exhibition exercise is an important aspect of the entire registration and election process and therefore important for voters to make time to participate.

She explained that since the provisional register is not the final document that would be used for the elections, the law provides for an exhibition process to enable all registered voters to check and verify their details to ensure all the necessary corrections and omissions are effected before it is certified.

“The voters’ register would only be deemed final after the exhibition exercise is completed and after authentication by magistrates, who for the purpose of this exercise are serving as the district registration review officers.”
“If for nothing at all the verification of a person’s details is important for this very reason as it affords each voter the opportunity to check whether their details are on the register and to request for an inclusion where such detail is missing,” she stated.

The exhibition exercise, she said, also affords prospective voters an avenue to verify the accuracy of their details captured on the register and to correct errors where there are some.

According to Mrs. Jean Mensa, the exhibition of the provisional register also provides among others, opportunity to raise objections about names of unqualified voters on the register among others and to also remove the names of deceased registrants.

The Commissioner indicated that physical copies of the provisional voters’ register would be placed at all exhibition centers nationwide to enable prospective voters very their details as captured during the registration exercise and request for amendments or insertions where necessary.

She noted that persons who registered at the district offices during the registration exercise are required to visit their assigned polling stations to check their details.

The Commission, she said, will also deploy an SMS shortcode 1422 to allow voters to check their details using their mobile phones for a fee of 30 pesewas.

“A voter, with a click of the button, can obtain the following details; name, voter ID card number, age, gender, polling station name and code, district and region.”

“This facility will be available to all voters throughout the period from Friday 18th to 25th September 2020,” she said.
Mrs Jean Mensa disclosed that the EC has also recruited one COVID-19 ambassador for each exhibition center across the country to enforce the COVID-19 protocols put in place by the Commission to ensure the security and safety of prospective voters.

Voters, she said, would therefore be required to wear their masks when they visit their centers and sanitize their hands before their details are verified on the verification device.