EC's lifeline for registration; 2 More Days(Front page) 11 August, 2008

Story:Michael Donkor
In Accra, large numbers of prospective voters had turned out at four registration centres in Accra, where the Daily Graphic observed the happenings on the official final day of the registration exercise.
At La Cathedral Centre, Burma Camp, Teshie and Adabraka there were long and winding queues formed by large numbers of people anxiously waiting for their turn to register.
The electoral officers at the centres were busily registering the people and would not even have the time to grant interviews to journalists who had come around.
However, some of the prospective voters who spoke to the Daily Graphic said they had come to the centres as early as 6 a.m, while others said they slept there to be able to register before the end of the exercise.
At La Cathedral, Naa Shika Lartey said she asked her younger brother to sleep at the centre for her to be able to be in front of the queue to register.
Agyei Tetteh said he came to the registration centre as early as 6 a.m. to register but to his surprise, there already was a queue which he had to join.
Rita Sowah said she had misplaced her identity card and had come to join the long queue as early as 8.30 a.m. to have another one done for her, but was advised to go home and wait for another time.
At Burma Camp, some soldiers were deployed at the centre, which is close to the General Headquarters of the Ghana Armed Forces, to ensure that there was orderliness in the exercise.
Some of the soldiers were spotted assisting the electoral officers to sort out the prospective voters while others helped in controlling the queues.
The prospective voters at that centre comprised of both civilians and soldiers.
Some of them said they had just turned the voting age while others said they had no interest in the previous elections, so they did not register.
At Teshie, the crowd was big and had overwhelmed the registration officers with a winding queue to the extent that it was difficult to get closer to them.
The situation was not different from that of Adabraka.
Although the queue was moving, the electoral officers at all the centres said they were not sure they could register all the prospective voters before the close of the day.