By: Isaac Amoah/tntnewspapergh.com

The New Patriotic Patriotic (NPP) Parliamentary Candidate (PC) for the Ahafo Ano South West Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Elvis Osei Mensah Dapaah, who is popularly called Okumkom, has made a passionate appeal to all Ghanaians who have attained 18 years and above, especially those in the constituency, to turn out and register in their numbers.

According to him, the need for every eligible applicant or potential voter to get their names in the voters’ register in the ongoing limited registration exercise under the auspices of the Electoral Commission (EC) across the country cannot be overemphasised.

Okumkom, however, cautioned those who have not yet attained 18 years not to allow themselves to be registered because even if they are not caught now it will have negative effects on them one day.

“As I’m encouraging all potential eligible voters to go out and register within the 21-day limited registration exercise to enable them to vote in the upcoming general election, I’m equally cautioning minors not to attempt to register but wait until they attain the required age under the 1992 Constitution,” he advised.

Elvis Osei Mensah Dapaah at the registration centre at Mankraso

The NPP PC gave the advice in an interview with “The New Trust” newspaper on Thursday, 9th May 2024, at Mankraso, the district and constituency capital.

Elvis Osei Mensah Dapaah, who has been embarking on awareness creation through information centres, radio and television stations, one-on-one and social media platforms, said every Ghanaian who has attained the required age should take advantage of the ongoing exercise to secure his or her voter’s card since, apart from election purposes, the Voter ID is relevant for many transactions.

He observed that the turnout has been encouraging after the initial network challenges encountered by the EC officials. “Since the EC directed that the exercise should go offline due to network challenges, the process is moving on fast and as of 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, about 90 persons had registered and issued with their voters ID,” he said.

“I want to once again encourage Ghanaians, especially those who have attained 18 years and above, to take advantage of the exercise to get their names in the voters’ register to enable them to exercise their franchise in the 7th December 2024 general election,” he added.

It would be recalled that the Electoral Commission of Ghana officially began voter’s registration exercise ahead of the 2024 elections on Tuesday, 7th May 2024, and after countering network challenges for the first two days of the exercise, it directed its officials to go offline and register the applicants.

The exercise is expected to end on 27th May 2024 across all the district offices of the Commission.

Okumkom advised the constituents and all Ghanaians, saying “let’s all take the exercise very seriously to make it a success. Let’s also guard against confusion in order to maintain the relative peace we’re enjoying.”