Lost Voters ID Cards Replacement

By Edmund Mingle
Saturday, 15 March 2008

A Voters Identity Card Replacement Exercise was started by the Electoral Commission (EC) yesterday.
The exercise, which ends on March 23, is taking place at 5,000 registrations centres throughout the country.
It aims at collecting data from registered voters who have lost their Voter ID cards, for the processing and issuance of new cards.
The exercise is the first major event towards the revision of the Voters Register expected to begin in May.
The Times found during visits to some centres at Osu and Adabraka that the exercise witnessed low patronage on the first day.There were no queues as witnessed during the registration exercises, but the officials at the centres believe the response will pick up as the exercise progresses.
The EC says the exercise is only for those who have lost their ID cards and not registration of voters.
Albert Kofi Arhin, Director of Operations at the EC told journalists yesterday that proof of the lost ID cards, such as a police report was required from the applicants.
That, he said, was part of measures to guard against double registration.
He stressed that voters cannot use the exercise for double registration since the data provided would be cross-checked against the existing data on the register.