Member of Parliament (MP) for Klottey-Korley constituency in the Greater Accra region, Dr Zanetor Rawlings has counselled registrants in the ongoing voter registration exercise across the country, to sanitise their hands before and after using the fingerprint scanner as part of the process at the various registration centres in order to protect themselves from COVID-19.

According to the MP, applying hand sanitiser before and after using of the fingerprint scanner will ensure the safety of both registration officials at the various registration centres and registrants.

The EC before the commencement of the exercise had announced that all COVID-19 safety protocols will be enforced at the various registration centres.

This it indicated will include the provision of Veronica buckets to ensure all registrants visiting the registration centres, wash their hands before beginning the process.

It had also said it will ensure that all equipment used including the fingerprint scanner will be sanitised after and before each registrant uses it as well as ensure social distancing is observed.

In a Facebook post on Friday, 10 July 2020, Dr Rawlings noted that although the EC has said it will ensure the cleaning of the fingerprint scanner, this has not been the case.

She wrote: “The EC process clearly states that the fingerprint scanner will be cleaned before each use. However, as part of my daily visits to a number of registration centres, I have encountered a number of situations where this was not the case. Have you observed it as well?”

She, thus, cautioned all prospective registrants that: “If the fingerprint scanner cannot be cleaned before each use, then for the safety of the official and the registrant, sanitiser should be applied to the hands before and after each use especially when the waiting time between hand-washing and scanning their fingerprints is long.”