Reality Zone: Minors on voters register – parents owe the nation a duty
If you are a parent with a child below the age of 18 years and this child registered to vote, whether intentional or by mistake, you will do your child, yourself, your family and the nation a great deal of good if you asked that child not to attempt to vote on December 7th 2012. One cannot imagine any parent wishing a borstal home for his or her child. Yet, that is exactly what parents whose children’s names appear in the voters register will be doing if they fail to counsel their children and advise them to desist from going to the polling stations with the intent to cast their votes. The fact is, if they do vote and later it is confirmed that they are minors, such children run the risk of prosecution and possible incarceration.
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The case of the existence of children less than 18 years on our voters register is real and worrying. It is real because it is coming from the horse’s own mouth and there is evidence to back it. And it is worrying because what it means is that we now have our children, our future, already indulging in electoral crime at the risk of our democracy and their own future as individuals.
The reality of it all came to light a fortnight ago when the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, met with the Editors Forum Ghana to dialogue on some electoral issues. Journalists and other media practitioners present at the meeting were, among other things, shown print out copies of data on some of the minors who were on the biometric voters register. Nobody needed to tell anyone who looked at the data that the pictures exhibited were those of minors.
The worry is that minors allowed to vote could be a hot bed for unnecessary confrontation and a possible area of conflict. We do not need any of that. We are all going to this general election with our knees down and our hands up asking God for His peace to prevail on our land once again. We are all determined to do what is in our power while asking the authorities to do what is in their power to help minimise trouble. In short, we are hoping for an incident free general election seeing it as one of the most keenly contested elections in the history of our Fourth Republic. Now what do we hear?
According to the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, there are a large number of children less than 18 years on the voters register across the country and as he puts it, “it is a potential source of conflict”.
One disturbing fact about the registered child voters is that nobody, not even the EC, has the power to expunge the names from the voters register once they have already been captured, except of course, by a court order. Going to court however means having the proof that the child is under 18 years, proofs perhaps like a birth certificate or school records - Something definitely slipped us all during the period of the biometric registration earlier in the year. Why did nobody spot them out at the time we all queued up for registration and put some fear in them there and then? Had we done that at the time, it would not have become an issue for us to worry about today.
Child voting is against the constitutional provision which pegs the voting age at eighteen years. Though the electoral laws do not allow anyone to prevent another person legally listed on the voters register to vote, the same laws allow a minor who votes to be prosecuted after committing the offence.
So, now that it has been revealed by the EC that some children under the age of 18 years did go and register, it is incumbent on all parents who care about the welfare of their children to find out from their under age children which of them went to get registered at the time. Those who were should be given good counselling in the coming 8 days. It is said that to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Parents owe it a duty to their children to make them understand the risks involved in attempting to cast their votes on 7th December.
As we all speak against unnecessary antagonism and look forward to a successful voting process, it would be a great disappointment if the case of child voting is allowed to spark off confusion and destroy the gains made so far.
Perhaps this is the time for our electronic media, particularly the television, to use graphic images to appeal first to children under 18 years, and then to parents to help Ghana steer out of a possible conflict. Our TV and radio stations would do Ghana a lot of good if in the next eight crucial days ahead of us, they endeavour to come out with crafted messages in all the major Ghanaian languages and speak on the dangers involved in child voting. It is the little these television and radio stations can do for the peace of our country.
But above all, as electorate, we have a duty to also use every opportunity to educate children in our compound homes, in our communities, in our churches, mosques and in our schools, about the risks they take should they attempt to go to their electoral centres to vote. Children should be warned now and then to desist from it.
For those who defy all odds and still go ahead to cast their votes because they believe their names are on the register, as the EC advised, we cannot stop them. However, we can make a note of any such suspects and make a report to the police immediately after for their arrest.
With eight days for the nation’s 14.07 million voters to decide who should govern this country and represent us in Parliament for the next four years, let no parent regret the day, not because their political favourites failed to make the impact but rather because their child was caught voting as a minor. Who would that parent blame but himself or herself.
Conflicts are caused. Let us not substitute peace with avoidable conflicts when what we all need to do now rather than later is to impress on parents to engage their underage children by talking passionately to them about the dangers of attempting to vote and explaining and letting them understand what they would be putting themselves through if they do go to vote.
The consequences of any parent allowing his or her underage child to go and vote simply because his or her name is on the voters register will not be a case of going to plead “fa ma Nyame” or give it to God anywhere because electoral crimes are that serious. A word to the wise is more than enough.
Article by Vicky Wireko