The scheduling of the 2020 Voters Registration exercise and the pledge by Ghanaian President to immortalize the 46-year-old African American, Mr. George Floyd in Accra are the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that the Electoral Commission has scheduled the 2020 Voters Registration exercise to commence on Tuesday, June 30, 2020.
The reports said that the Deputy Chairman in charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Bossman E. Asare, made this known to all political parties in a letter.
“I bring you warm greetings from the Electoral Commission and trust that this letter finds you well.
“This letter comes to inform you that the 2020 Voters Registration Exercise has been scheduled to commence on Tuesday, the 30th of June 2020. The registration will be held at all Registration Centres and District Offices of the Electoral Commission throughout the country,” the letter said.
The newspaper also said that the addition of 291 new coronavirus cases came with it, the fall of the country’s last standing region to register any positive case, the Ahafo Region.
Ahafo had stood unblemished as the disease rolled over region after region, however the Ghana Health Service in its latest update says the region has also recorded its first positive case.
The numbers have come from a total of 239,395 tests. Another report by the Graphic says that Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has pledged to immortalize the 46-year-old African American, Mr George Floyd in Accra.
During the burial service for the late Floyd on Tuesday in Houston, Texas, a spokesperson said the family of George Floyd was honoured by the solidarity message, resolution and visual tributes from Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo and his decision to permanently mount Mr. Floyd’s name at the Diaspora African Forum and the W. E. B. Du Bois Centre in Accra.
The spokesperson acknowledged a visual footage that was produced by the people of Ghana, which was broadcast to thousands of mourners, who attended a memorial to pay their last respects to the late Floyd in the United States last Thursday.
The report recalled that President Akufo-Addo and former African presidents, had earlier condemned the killing of Mr. Floyd, who was unarmed, in the custody of a white policeman in the US.
President Akufo-Addo said “Black people, the world over, are shocked and distraught by the killing of an unarmed black man George Floyd by a police officer in the United States of America.”
The Times reports that for the umpteenth time, parts of Accra were submerged, following a downpour which lasted about four hours.
It noted that properties running into several millions of cedis were destroyed, while one person was reported dead at Adabraka in Accra.
It added that several people were trapped in their homes as they could not step out due to the volume of water and the magnitude of the current.
According to the report, some of the affected areas included Alajo in the Ayawaso East municipality, Kwame Nkrumah Interchange area in the Okaikoi South municipality, Adabraka Sahara in the Korle-Klottey municipality, and the Kaneshie First Light area, Sakaman, North Kaneshie, Awoshie, Achimota and Odorkor.
The newspaper also says that many Ghanaians are sharply divided as to whether the current football league season across the various divisions should continue or be truncated.
The report noted that some chieftains of the game in the country have long held the desire to synchronise the Ghanaian football calendar with that of their European counterparts and with the coming in of the COVID-19 pandemic, many see it to be the biggest opportunity for the country to execute this plan.
However, not all seem to agree as others claim those calling for the leagues to be canceled now have their parochial interests.
The report noted that the Executive Director of Tamale City FC, Jones Abu Alhassan, has joined the call for the leagues not to be canceled.
GIK/APA