The proposed offline display of the Provisional Voters’ Register is still up for debate within the EC.

The plan to display the Provisional Voters’ Register offline at polling places across the country has not yet been approved by the Electoral Commission (EC), according to their statement.
As part of its attempts to update the register in advance of the elections on December 7, the EC indicated after last week’s Inter-Party Advisory Committee Meeting in Accra that it intended to display the revised Provisional Voters’ Register online.

Since then, there have been requests for the Commission to take into account exhibiting the Register offline so that voters in remote areas and those without internet connection can take part in the process.

Benjamin Bano-Bioh, Director of election Services, EC, however, stated that the offline voter registration process “was on the drawing board” and that the Commission’s administration had not reached a decision on the subject while addressing at a workshop in Accra to educate journalists about the election procedures.

The Commission has been urged to show the updated voter registration list at the different registration locations. That choice would have to be made by the Commission. We therefore await word from management,” he stated.

Mr. Bano-Bioh described the format of the online display, stating that registered voters may use their phones to view their names, polling places, and other information for free.

He urged people who have registered to vote to check their information when the online exhibition exercise starts by calling *711*51 #.

Mr. Bano-Bioh urged the media to prevent spreading false information by reporting election-related issues factually and by consistently requesting clarification from the Commission.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) led the training, which was a component of the project to improve media capacity for fact-based reporting and combating misinformation and disinformation related to elections.
The goal of the program, according to Mr. Kojo Impraim, Director of Media for Peace and Sustainable Development at MFWA, was to enable the media to act as a vehicle for accountability and as an advocate for the views of the public.

Throughout the election season, he urged media outlets to set up fact-checking bureaus to confirm facts and weed out false information.

He remarked, “Let us not allow misinformation to affect our electoral integrity. The media is the one that tells proper story.”