The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has asked the Electoral Commission (EC) to reconsider its decision to exclude the existing Voter ID card from the list of acceptable documents for registering onto the yet to be compiled new voters’ register.
Making a case for its call, CODEO pointed out that the passport and Ghana card as the only legitimate documents for registration might present a “difficulty on the part of qualified citizens in exercising their right to register to vote.”
Aside from the Ghana Card or passport being acceptable documents for registering onto the voters’ register, persons who have already been captured on the new voters’ register can guarantee for others to register.
CODEO, however, fears this system might be abused by some registered voters.
“CODEO recalls with consternation, the abuse of the guarantor system in previous registration exercises (as highlighted in its reports on previous registration exercises it observed) in which some registered voters turned themselves into ‘guarantee contractors’ vouching for the eligibility of all manner of persons who might be in fact unqualified to be registered.”
“The same system tended to create extreme tension in the voter registration process, with some political party agents and activists physically preventing persons who lacked the requisite identification documents from registering, sometimes on the basis of mere suspicion.”
CODEO’s plea comes on the back of the greenlight Parliament has given the Electoral Commission to use the Ghana Card and Passports as the only forms of identification.
Legislators voted in a 102 to 96 decision in favour of the EC’s decision on Tuesday, June 9, 2020.
The EC presented the Public Election (Amendment) Regulation, 2020 (C.I. 126) to Parliament to amend C.I. 91 in order to change the current identification requirements, making the old voter ID invalid for registering to vote.
The EC had first presented the new Constitutional Instrument on March 16.
But it has been relaid multiple times because of various defects, which prompted the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu to question the commitment and competence of the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa.
The plan to compile a new register ahead of the general elections in December has over time sparked up controversies, with many parties and groups disagreeing with the move.
The Inter-Party Resistance Against New Voter Register, a group made up of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Convention People’s Party (CPP), People’s National Convention (PNC), Eagle Party, All People’s Party (APC), Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have on several occasions demonstrated to express their disappointment over the EC’s decision.
