EC presses on with plan to make Ghana Card lone ID for voter registration

Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) is hoping to be second time lucky in convincing parliament to approve its plan of making the Ghana Card the only ID document required for voter registration.

The EC plans to take back its 2023 Constitutional Instrument (CI) proposal to parliament when it resumes from its recess, after the idea was first rejected by lawmakers last month.

Ghanaian lawmakers, including some from the ruling New Patriotic Party, argued that making the Ghana Card the lone ID requirement for voter registration could potentially disenfranchise millions of Ghanaians who do not yet possess the card.

Complaints about the lack of the Ghana Card by many citizens have come to the fore in an ongoing government-directed biometric SIM re-registration drive.

The EC says it is not relenting on its push to replace the guarantor system which it argues has given room for electoral irregularities in the past, according to local daily newspaper Ghanaian Times.

Predicating the voter registration process on the biometric ID system, the agency adds, will allow for the organization of credible elections in the future.

Ghana holds presidential and parliamentary elections in December next year.

Serebour Quaicoe, director of Electoral Services at EC, is quoted by the outlet as saying that proposals made by parliament could not to be considered an outright rejection.

Among other novelties, the CI proposal also intends to make biometric voter registration in Ghana a yearly affair. For now, the exercise is allowed only during a certain portion of the election cycle.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometric identification  |  digital ID  |  Ghana  |  Ghana Card  |  national ID  |  voter registration