Ghana Card for voter registration: Parliament only expressed an opinion - EC clarifies

The Electoral Commission of Ghana has kicked against suggestions by the Parliament of Ghana, asking it to tweak or amend the new Constitutional Instrument (CI) which seeks to make the Ghana Card the sole registration document for elections.

The EC, in the new CI, is seeking to scrap the guarantor system, the limited registration to district offices, and the proof of nationality to only the Ghana Card.

But just before parliament went on recess on Friday, March 31, 2023, the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, in presenting the report of the committee on the draft CI, admonished parliament to “officially communicate to the EC of the decision for a favorable consideration before finalization and presentation to parliament for the passage into law.”

But speaking to Kumasi-based Oyerepa TV, the Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, argued that “parliament hasn’t rejected the new CI.”

In his view, “parliament only expressed an opinion,” which is not binding on the Electoral Commission.

“You should read your constitution. It is only when the CI has been laid and two thirds majority agrees to reject it, but the CI hasn’t been laid. Parliament only expressed an opinion and it is for the commission to decide on it. But for now, we haven’t changed our position. We still insist that the new CI is the best for the country’s’ electoral process and upon resumption of the House (parliament), we will still ask them to approve the new CI in its current form,” he told Kwesi Parker-Wilson.

Meanwhile, sources within the Minority Caucus of Parliament have vowed to block the laying of the CI in its current form.

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AE/OGB