Anyone who vouches for more than 10 persons will be prosecuted – EC chairperson to Ghanaians

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa, has stated that any individual who vouches for more than ten persons flouts their regulations and would be prosecuted accordingly.

She explained that in order to ensure eligible persons are registered unto the new voters register, it would be prudent to limit the number of people an individual can vouch for to ten.

The EC Chairperson indicated that anyone who vouches for a foreigner also breaches the laws hence would be dealt with appropriately.

Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday, August 17, 2023, Jean Mensah disclosed the documents that allow an individual to be registered as a voter and warned that persons who disregard their directives would be brought to book.

“All applicants are to show proof of eligibility by tendering any of the following identification documents on the National Identification Card, also known as the Ghana Card and the Ghana Passport. Applicants who do not have any of the identification documents listed above are required to present two persons who are already registered voters to vouch for their citizenship and age. Per law, a guarantor can guarantee for up to ten applicants.

"It is important to emphasize that it is a criminal offense to guarantee for more than ten applicants and a person who guarantees for more than ten applicants will be prosecuted. It is also a criminal offense for a guarantor to guarantee for non-citizens and minors. I like to call on our media partners to assist us in educating our citizenry on this specific section of the law,” she said.

The chairperson of the Electoral Commission added that district-level elections scheduled for December 19, 2023, will be conducted in all districts across the country except the Nokoranza North and South district which will be held in 2025, and admonished Ghanaians to take active participation in the elections.

The district-level elections, also known as DLE for short, will be conducted to elect people to the lower local government structures. It is a nonpartisan election, and it is held every four years.

The 2023 district-level election will take place on Tuesday, December 19, 2023.

The DLE will be conducted in all 6,272 electoral areas in all districts, with the exception of Nkoranza North and Nkoranza South in the Bono East region.

The DLE [District Level Elections] for the two districts was not held in 2019 for security reasons.

“They were both conducted in April 2021. As such, their elections would not be held in both districts until 2025. The Commission has developed a comprehensive program of activities for the 2023 district-level elections, and this will be made available to the public shortly.

"As a commission, we encourage voters to take advantage of the voter registration exercise and register to vote. We also entreat the citizenry to participate actively in the district-level elections, which would be held on December 19, 2023,” Jean Mensa said.

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