Chairman Issack Hassan explained that the commission is now in the process of verifying whether the double registration was deliberate or by choice and take measures by cleaning up the register/FILE
Chairman Issack Hassan explained that the commission is now in the process of verifying whether the double registration was deliberate or by error and take measures by cleaning up the register.
He was speaking after meeting with presidential candidates and their agents where he announced that the final register will be gazetted by Monday next week.
“We will gazette the final register before the 18th of this month and we are required by law to check and confirm that the register is clean and we are doing this by checking those who were registered more than once,” he stated.
“As of last time we got a report from the Director of ICT, there are about 20,000 people who registered more than once. They were checking whether these were people who had done this deliberately or it was because of an error.”
During the meeting, Issack revealed that the commission will dispatch 5,000 voter inspection gadgets with each containing details of 400 voters to remote areas within the country.
“All the data of those 400 voters, fingerprints, name, everything will be loaded into this equipment. When you walk in to a polling station, the gadget will identify you as a voter,” he pointed out.
“This is what was used in Ghana. It is very durable and when the batteries die, you simply remove the cover and put in the batteries which you are carrying as spare. We only have 5,000 and will deploy them to far flung areas where there is no power,” he said.
He further stated that IEBC will conduct a countrywide simulation of the voting process on Thursday.
“We are going to vote manually. We are going to use ballot boxes and ballot papers and many people still do not understand this. You will not go to a polling centre, touch a screen and vote for somebody,” he indicated.
IEBC had opened the voters’ register for public inspection which ended on January 26.
To confirm voting registration details, one either had to send the national identity card or passport number to the short text message code 15872, or visit one’s registration centre.
The name of the voter, county, constituency, ward and station in which they are registered was also displayed in any of the platforms.
The Commission in the meantime met all presidential candidates and their agents to dialogue on the challenges faced by the aspirants, key among them being security ahead of next month’s polls.
Hassan told reporters that the commission reviewed the code of conduct with the aspirants and further enlightened them on how the transmission of results will take place during the polls.
He also said his officers demonstrated to the candidates how the voting process is going to take place.
“This is just part of our dialogue with the candidates for the election and we have discussed a number of issues including the code of conduct during the polls, the need to maintain peace and using the right channels to address their grievances,” he stated.
He explained that the aspirants had given their assurances that they will accept the outcome of the elections and if aggrieved will follow the proper channels of complaints.
“We had a discussion where they raised their own concerns, questions and these were answered. We had a very fruitful discussion with all the candidates and they assured us that they are going to be peaceful during their campaigns and we in turn assured them that there will be no hitches in the process.”
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