Codeo charges EC to up Covid-19 safety measures

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has called on the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) to consider additional mechanisms in enhancing safety at all registration centres. According to Codeo, despite the ample space at most registration centres, its observers noted that EC officials could not ensure social distancing of applicants in queues. This was contained in the report released by the election-observing body on Phase One of the ongoing voter registration exercise. The phase started on Tuesday, June 30 and ended Sunday, July 5. In its report, Codeo said EC officials did well in checking the temperatures of applicants at most centres before they were taken through the process. “However, this was not done in some cases,” the report noted. “In few instances, some applicants were turned away from a registration center by officials because of their high body temperature.” It commended the EC for providing hand-washing facilities at 99 per cent of centres though some officials did not strictly enforce hand washing. “Registration officials did not always wipe or clean the surface of the fingerprint scanners after applicants used them,” Codeo also observed. “Observers indicated that officials ‘always’ did so only in 4 in 10 cases, and ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ in majority of cases. “At a  few instances, the  officials  ‘never’  wiped  or  cleaned the surface of the fingerprint scanners after applicants used them.” It urged the EC to intensify public awareness on movement of registration officials and also asked the public “to exercise optimum responsibility in ensuring that human lives are not endangered unnecessarily”. The Coalition deployed 100 observers across the country for the exercise. Source: 3news.com|Ghana]]>