The Chamber for Local Governance (ChaLoG) says a survey it conducted revealed that 35 per cent of eligible voters declined to participate in the voter registration due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

ChaLoG announcing this in a press release said, "Thirty five percent (35%) of the current voter population will not risk their lives going out to register if the EC is to go ahead with its avowed aim to compile a new biometric voters register ahead of the 2020 General Elections for fear of contracting the ever increasing spread of the corona virus disease".

It stated that in a quest to find out if eligible voters were prepared to partake in the upcoming registration, a total of 4,800 current voters were interviewed in all the 16 regions of Ghana between March 23 and May 30, 2020.

Respondents, they indicated, answered the question "Amidst the COVID 19 pandemic, will you go out to re-register if the EC comes out with a date for the compilation of a new biometric register"?

Three-hundred respondents were randomly selected from each of the 16 regions with the data collected analysed with the SPSS method.

They stated that the sample size yielded country level results with a margin of error of plus or minus two per cent points at a 95 percent confidence level.
Touching on other findings of the survey, they said 48 per cent of the current voter population said they were ready and willing to go out to re-register if the EC was to go ahead to compile a new biometric voters register ahead of the 2020 General Elections in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic.

"Ten per cent (10) of the current voter population indicated strongly that they are having a second thought and hence have not yet decided whether they would go to the polling stations to re-register or not.

"Their reasons were mainly based on the fact that the COVID 19 cases in Ghana keeps rising by the day and they will only have a change of mind and consider re-registering if there is a clear indication that the COVID-19 infections are coming down as at the time the EC announces the date for the exercise, "according to the chamber.

ChaLog concluded that 7 per cent of respondents indicated that they would only go to re-register after assessing the public health and safety mechanisms (COVID 19 preventive measure protocols) put in place by the EC at the respective polling stations and were convinced beyond reasonable doubt that they would be safe and free from the contraction of the corona virus disease.