Politics

Voter registration: Use of Ghana Card will phase out guarantor system in voter registration – EC

The Electoral Commission (EC) has stated that the use of the Ghana Card will help phase out the guarantor system which is often exploited by non-eligible voters.

It noted that the Commission had targeted registering between 450,000 and 550,000 new voters in the continuous voter registration exercise every year.

According to the Commission, “the use of the Ghana Card as the only source of identification for the continuous voters’ registration exercise is the surest way to rid the electoral register of minors and foreigners”.

Addressing a news conference in Accra, Mr Samuel Tettey,Deputy Chairperson of EC in charge of Operations , said the Constitutional Instrument that would govern the continuous registration exercise would be laid before Parliament when the House reconvenes.

He insisted that continuous registration of voters was an all year-round registration of the citizenry who were at least 18 years old and had not previously registered as voters and the Commission would not compile a new voters’ register.

Rather, Mr Tettey explained that the Commission would continuously register voters to update the current voters register to ensure anyone who wanted to register as a voter had opportunity to do so.

“Anyone who turns 18 simply has to walk to the district office of the Commission where the person wants to vote and register as a voter, EC will not leave any citizen behind, the use of Ghana Card for registration exercise will rather guarantee integrity of the electoral register and about10million out of17million registered voters use the card as main source of identification in the 2020 registration exercise.

“We are reliably informed more than17 million Ghanaians have registered for the card as at last month and about 16 million cards have been issued, on the strength of the numbers, we are convinced the one million applicants we are expecting to register as at now following last registration exercise in 2020 are likely to possess the card,” Mr Tettey assured.

Mrs Jean Mensa, Chairperson for the EC, debunked assertion eligible voters would be disenfranchised in the continuous registration exercise since there would be no deadline but the country must be concerned about presence of foreigners in the electoral register.

Show More
Back to top button