The Electoral Commission (EC) is to lay before Parliament the new Constitutional Instrument (C.I), which is expected to regulate continuous voter registration in the country.
The new CI titled: Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2021, is seeking to make the Ghana Card the sole form of identification for eligible voters who want to get unto the electoral roll.
The Director of Elections at the EC, Dr Serebour Quaicoe, told the Daily Graphic that the new CI will regulate the continuous registration and not to compile a new voter register.
“We are not compiling a new voters register. The one we compiled in 2020 is a credible one, a very good register so we are not dispensing it,” he emphasised.
He explained that the continuous registration is targeted at those who have turned 18 years.
Rationale
Dr Quaicoe explained further that what the EC sought to cure with the new C.I was to eliminate non-Ghanaians and minors by using the Ghana Card.
Per the new C.I, he said the commission will collaborate with the Births and Deaths Registrar so that periodically, they would update the commission with the list of people who have passed on so that the EC would start the processes of deleting their names from the register.
“This are the main issues that are in the new C.I, which is different from C.I 91,” Dr Quaicoe stated.
The EC’s director of elections said already, the commission had gone through all the various processes for the new CI to be laid before Parliament as the House had resumed sitting.
Dr Quaicoe said there was extensive discussion on the new CI at the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meetings, after which it was given to the Attorney General’s Department to fine tune it because they are the drafters of the law.
“What is left is for us to lay it before Parliament as the House has resumed sitting,” he stated.
The decision to make the Ghana Card the only form of identification for the continuous registration has been a thorny issue among some stakeholders within the country’s electoral system which they said would lead to the disenfranchisement of many eligible voters.
Notable among the stakeholders that have raised concerns about the use of the Ghana Card is the main opposition National Democratic Congress.
The EC has since responded to the concerns with the assurance that it was collaborating with the National Identification Authority (NIA).
The NIA on its part, has also assured that the challenges associated with the issuance of the Ghana Card would be addressed.