Parliament Rejects EC’s Draft CI Seeking To Make Ghana Card Sole Document For Voter Registration

Parliament on Friday, 31st March 2023, has by unanimous decision, rejected the Electoral Commission’s (EC) Constitutional Instrument (CI), that sought to make the Ghana card sole registration document for voting.

This comes following the presentation of a report of the Committee of the Whole on the draft Public Elections (registration of voters) Regulations, 2023, and other related matters, which indicated that the House’s position to not accept provisions of the proposed CI.

“The Committee, having thoroughly interrogated the issues and reforms being contemplated by the EC, would like to reiterate its support for any effort that would enable every Ghanaian to get a Ghana card because it is the law.”

However, the Committee would like to stress that it would not accept and would reject any effort that is geared towards making the EC use the Ghana card as the only medium to qualify a person who is eligible to vote in 2024 elections,” portions of the report stated.

The House unanimously recommended to the commission to include the guarantor system in the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulation, 2023 before it could present it for consideration.

Legislators were of the view that unless and until the challenges confronting the issuance of the Ghana Card were dealt with, using the Ghana Card as the only medium of voter registration would negatively impact the electoral roll and thereby deny some otherwise qualified persons from registering to vote.

“The EC should tarry slowly until everybody eligible voter is afforded the opportunity to register and procure the Ghana before the legislation of such a compulsion,” they said.

The speaker of parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin,  indicated that parliament cannot compel the EC to go by their rules but with effective communications and negotiations, they can convince EC to go by the will of Ghanaians to bring peace and stability to the house.

 

 

Members of parliament from both sides of the House in debating the report, highlighted the dangers of the proposed CI and cautioned the EC to desist from that move, until there is certainty that all members who have registered with the NIA for the Ghana card, have been issued with the document.

Prior to this, earlier this month, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, had insisted that the draft CI with its provisions – including use of the Ghana Card as the sole source of identification for voters – is relevant to Ghana’s electoral process.

In a presentation on the draft CI’s status to parliament on Tuesday, February 28, the Chairperson maintained that the proposal seeks to promote a continuous registration of new voters, as well as cleanse the electoral system of unqualified persons.

“The CI before parliament seeks to promote the continuous registration of voters and advocates for all-year-round registration of eligible voters at district offices of the EC. It is a clear departure from the previous system wherein voters’ registration was done for a limited period.

“Like its name, under the Limited Voters Registration Exercise, the registration of new voters was only done for a limited period. It was not all year round. As such, persons who turned 18 years old after the registration period, as well as persons who had not previously registered to vote, could not do so when the time set aside for registration, usually 3-4 weeks, elapsed.

“Another significant feature of this draft Constitutional Instrument is the proposal to adopt the Ghana Card as the sole source of identification for any person who wishes to register as a voter. This implies that the guarantor system which hitherto allowed a registered voter to vouch for the citizenship and age of prospective applicants will no longer be relied upon as part of this new Constitutional Instrument,” Mrs. Mensa stated.

That CI met stiff opposition from the minority in parliament, which rejected the move and cast doubts on the capacity of the NIA to issue Ghana cards to all applicants who have registered for the cards before the 2024 general elections.

This, however, met stiff opposition from the minority in parliament, which rejected the move, and among other reasons, casted doubts on the capacity of the NIA to issue Ghana cards to all applicants who have registered for the cards before the 2024 general elections.

 

 

Report adoption 

The House took the decision after legislators adopted the report of the Committee of the Whole on the draft constitutional instrument.

The report, signed by the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, who is also the Speaker of Parliament, said it was not the time for the EC to introduce and implement the Ghana card as the only means of identification of citizenship for the purposes of voter registration.

The report was presented to the House by the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, who moved the motion for the House to adopt the committee’s report.

The reports captured the concerns of MPs from both sides of the House raised during previous meetings by the Special Budget Committee and the Committee of the Whole with the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa; the Executive Secretary of the NIA Prof. Ken Attafuah, and the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.

It was premised on the fact that the EC could only lay the new C.I. in Parliament for admission and consideration if it gave favourable consideration to the concerns raised by MPs.

 

 

 

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