PRESS STATEMENT BY CHIEF ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER AND CHAIRMAN ON THE UPDATE OF FIELD DATA CAPTURE. 7TH SEPTEMBER 2022
Good morning all and thanks for coming to this press briefing.
On behalf of my Colleague Commissioners who are currently in the field, I wish to give you the following update on the voter registration process.
• About 95% of all centers nationwide opened on 3rd September 2022.
• Sufficient materials were supplied to all Voter Registration Centers.
• Some centers opened after 7am mostly due to poor road network and challenges in distributing registration materials. The Commission is very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
• The ECSL Situation Room has been active receiving calls from all over the country on the short code 838. Thanks to NATCOM, Africell, Qcell and Orange for facilitating this.
• The staff in the field are having challenges to register first-time voters. This is a technical issue which has to do with the Voter Verification software. It has however been resolved.
. During the first two-days, the attention of the Commission was drawn to the issue power supply to the VVKs and VIUs. Significant improvement has been done in this regard. We have received solar panels to charge the batteries and distribution of those panels is ongoing.
• The Commission has been notified of attempts by some people to facilitate the registration of underage people. The Commission wants to remind the general citizens that it is a crime punishable by law. The Commission has the means to identify culprits and such persons will be prosecuted.
•The Commission wants the public to know that voter registration field capture has two phases. This first phase will end on the 17September 2022. Our Operations team will need two days to move equipment and staff for the second phase to start on the 20thSeptember to 4th October.
• The Commission is satisfied with the ongoing Voter Registration process having registered about 415,465 Voters based on report from 65% centers out of 1815 centers open.
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