The Minority in Parliament has taken an entrenched position against the Electoral Commission’s new Constitutional Instrument (C.I) that seeks to make the Ghana card the sole identity for voter registration exercise ahead of the 2024 election.
The guarantor system, where an individual can guarantee the citizenship of a person so he or she can acquire a voter’s ID card for the purpose of elections, will be no more when the C.I is passed but the Minority says the guarantor system has been tried and tested over time and should be maintained.
The Minority believes the proposed C.I which will eliminate the guarantor system is a deliberate attempt by the EC to disenfranchise many Ghanaians.
Addressing the media, the Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson said: “For emphasis, the Electoral Commission was pushed to provide evidence to back the claim of so-called abuse of the guarantor system, the EC indicated that in the 2019 voter registration for instance, only 15,474 people, representing just 0.09% of the total of 17,029,981 registered voters, were challenged on the basis of the guarantor system.”
“This statistic is a very insignificant and immaterial percentage to warrant a total abrogation of the guarantor system, particularly at a time many do not have the Ghana Card. We say this because the National Identity Register Regulations 2012 (LI 2111), make room for the guarantor system when it comes to acquiring a Ghana Card,” he added.
Dr. Ato Forson wondered ‘what mischief’ the EC is seeking to cure by relying solely on the Ghana Card as a source document for the registration of voters when it intends to completely outlaw the guarantor system which constituted about 40% of Ghana Card registrations.
“We hold the view that the time-tested guarantor system must be maintained in our voter registration process and this position is absolutely non-negotiable. Common sense should tell any objective mind that a source document for the Ghana Card must be a source document for the Voter ID Card and vice versa,” he stressed.
Source: class fm
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I always have problem with this NDC PM'S, members and sympathizers.. Looking for one or two to come and guarantee for you and going to register with the NIA for Ghana card which is easy· A party that becomes happy when we have economic hardship. A party that can write to the IMF to deny Ghana getting the $2billion Syno-Hydro money. God will not allow them to rule again, from PNDC to NDC the atrocities committed to Ghanaians will not go unanswered. Where is CPP now, upon all the good things Osagyefo did for this country his party is now among the unrecognize parties in the country because of senseless imprison of opponents, action troppers, young pioneer. There was time in the country children started disobeying their parents simply because they are members of young pioneer. The YP used their meetings as an excuse to avoid household chores. Who dare you parent to talk about it. People cook food and leave it after one o''clock news before they eat it.
SO you don't want progress right? EC koraa they should have even decided on the use of the Ghana Card only.
Patapaa argument by the minority leader. EC is mandated to do this job and has studied and concluded that Ghana Card is the only means to keep foreigners and children out of this register but one party want to dictate the rules of which it is a player. To hell with them. Jean Mensah, do the right thing. NDC has lost the argument. They think Ghana is in 20th Century. We are in 21 century and technology has made many things possible. Anybody who wins election must have the true mandate of Ghanaians. Clean elections