Majority MPs insist proposed C.I will reform electoral process

The Majority in Parliament has justi ed the Electoral Commission’s decision to introduce a Constitutional Instrument which aims to promote the Continuous registration of voters and a proposal to adopt the Ghana Card as the sole source of identi cation for any person who wishes to register as a voter.

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa, on Tuesday told Parliament during a Committee of the Whole brie ng that the use of the Ghana Card as the sole identi cation document for continuous voters’ registration will guarantee the credibility and integrity of the country’s voter register and aid elections as a whole.

Addressing members of the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC) on Thursday at parliament house in Accra, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the draft CI will not only ensure that the outstanding two million eligible voters who are yet to be registered are registered but will bring sanity and reform to the country’s electoral process.

He also debunk assertions from the minority that resorting to only the Ghana card as proof of citizenship would curtail the right of citizens to vote “when the exercise of proof of citizenship to re-register begun, the EC allowed the use of birth certi cate, baptismal, driver’s license, passport, drivers license, National Health Insurance cards, now today one after, the Commission has peeled o some of these instruments of identi cation that is to establish one’s citizenship, so that exercise they have done in the past amounted to restraining Ghanaian citizenship or identity of Ghanaians to be registered.

According to the majority leader,the constitution in article 45 (A) mandates the EC to compile register of voters and revise it as may be determined by law, “the performance of the functions does not mean that you are eternally adding to, you substract from, sanitise it and the process of improving the establishment of your citizenship.”

Further, he added the majority will continue to engage the minority to reach a consensus on the CI which he reckons charts a new path as far as elections in the country are concerned.

The minority in spite of the EC’s

By Eugene Davis

presentation to parliament remains unconvinced and have indicated that millions of eligible Ghanaian voters do not have the Ghana Card and therefore stand the risk of being completely disenfranchised, stressing that three groups comprising those who have registered for the Ghana Card but have not been issued with cards. The number of people in this category stands at a staggering 645,663.

According to the majority leader, the reason for the invitation of the three institutions to parliament “was to clear any lingering doubt about the impending continuous voter registration and the enabling constitutional instrument in which the electoral commission has indicated to resort to the national identity cards (Ghana Card) as the only means to identify Ghanaian citizens for the registration of voters.”

New C.I.

The C.I. seeks to promote the continuous registration of voters and advocates an all-year round registration of eligible voters at the district o ces of the EC.

It is a clear departure from the previous system where voters’ registration was done for a limited period.

Under the limited voters’ registration exercise, the registration of new voters was only done for a limited period.