Some students of the premier university of Ghana who have just turned 18 and some first time voters had to queue for hours if not days just to register for a voter’s ID card. In the quest to register in the limited biometric voter’s identification registration exercise currently ongoing, the students had to forgo their examination preparations in order to queue for hours and in some cases days before getting the chance to register.
The whole of university of Ghana with a population of over 35000 students most of which are first time voters and some just turning 18 is having only one registration center. The registration center which is located in front of Legon hall is supposed to cater for all students in the main halls, the diaspora and those from TF hostel and its environs.
Since the beginning of the registration exercise, checks by legonconnect.com shows that there is always more than 250 students in queue waiting for their turns in order to get registered. Some students had to wake up as early as 6 am to go and queue and wait for the electoral commission officials to come around later in the morning to register them.
When LegonConnect spoke to some of the students, it was clear that most of them are sacrificing their examination not because they want to vote in the upcoming 2016 elections but because the voter’s identification card has become one of the most important identification cards in the country.
Judging from the number of students who showed up every day to register, it is clear that there is no way a single polling station will be able to get all potential and willing students registered by the time the 10 days allocated for the exercise elapses.
Speaking to the local NUGS president of university of Ghana Richmond Asare, he complained bitterly about the situation and even went ahead to criticize the timing of the process saying “most senior high school students who are now 18 years and suppose to register are currently taking their WASSCE papers and for that matter cannot register”.
Meanwhile, the SRC president of University of Ghana Davies Ohene Fobi is set to address a press conference today Thursday May 5, 2016 in order to make the grievances of the students known to the government and the electoral commission.