96,000 register at Upper Bong

Hours to the closure of the one -week extended time for voter registration across the country, Upper Bong Election Magistrate recorded over 96,000 registrants.

Magistrate [Daniel] Newland told this paper on Tuesday, 14 March that prior to the National Elections Commission or NEC’s one-week extension period, over 92,000 eligible voters had registered under the one month period earlier provided.

He said the one-week extension period saw additional 4,000 voters registering, thus raising the number to 96,000 registrants at Upper Bong County alone. But on the last day of voter registration on Tuesday, 14 March, Mr. Newland told our correspondent that most of the registration centers were relatively empty as many citizens, who had not registered, failed to turn out to get registered.

He said this prompted many of the registration centres to close ahead of time. While acknowledging that there were challenges at the start of the voters’ registration exercise, Mr. Newland noted that the NEC workers were able to cope with the challenges and ensured that all centers remained opened throughout the exercise.

Papa Morris, (Bong Correspondent)-Editing by Winston W. Parley