Ghana’s Ex-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama has stated that until full and total coverage is achieved in the roll out of the Ghana Card, room must be made for those who are yet to be served in order to enable them exercise their democratic rights of voting.
The Minority caucus in Parliament recently alleged that the Electoral Commission (EC) was attempting to compile new voters register on the sole basis of the new Ghana card.
Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader, explained that a new register on this basis is a wasteful expenditure and will disenfranchise a lot of Ghanaians who have not registered or secured their cards yet.
During his address to journalists in Parliament he said: “Our understanding as we pick it up is that the EC is desperately planning to discard the 2020 voters register and replace it with a new voter register, which will cause taxpayers and the people of Ghana 80 million dollars thereabout.”
EC’s Response
Speaking on Atinka TV’s morning show, Ghana Nie last week, the Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission, Dr Serebour Quiacoo debunked rumours that the EC was attempting to compile a new voter’s register for the 2024 elections.
He said the current one is credible and that is what will be used for the 2024 elections.
However, He explained that the EC would require all new voters to register for their voters’ ID card with the Ghana card since it bears all the needed information.
For those who already have their voters’ ID Card, he clarified that they do not have to do any new registration with their Ghana cards.
“We are not going to compile a new voters’ register. The one we compiled in 2020 is very good and credible and that is what we will use for the election that will be held. Rather, we have done a new CI for continuous registration. With this, we allow those who are now reaching 18 years to be able to go to the EC office to register it and that is what we presented to parliament which has brought a lot of issues,” he said.
Dr Serebour Quiacoo continued that, “If they said we are requiring for the Ghana Card it is true, but it is for those who have not done the registration at all, if you wrote your name in 2020, it is there and so you do not need the Ghana card for a re-registration or anything.”
Mahama’s take
But speaking at the closing ceremony of a minority caucus workshop over the weekend, Mr Mahama stated that, “The Electoral Commission, instead of making it easy for our citizens to take part in elections, rather takes delight in making it difficult. They appear determined to ensure the disenfranchisement of sections of our population at all costs through a misguided insistence on the use of the Ghana card as the only source of identification for a voter card.”
He noted that the Ghana Card is a relatively new feature of our national life and has its merits in the scheme of things.
Unfortunately, Mr Mahama observed that at the moment, it is being brandished more as a political tool around which all manner of schemes is being fashioned towards elections.
He said, “There is the need to allow sufficient time for its full integration into our way of life before this kind of unhelpful exclusion of all other legitimately acquired, credible and time-tested forms of identification is implemented.”
Mr Mahama stressed that, “Until full and total coverage is achieved in the roll out of the Ghana Card, room must be made for those who are yet to be served, to exercise their democratic rights of voting. They cannot be excluded from the voter register due to no fault of theirs. This should be clear and quite easy to appreciate.”
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Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori