EC can’t make Ghana Card sole citizenship ID for voters’ register - Parliament says
PARLIAMENT last Friday rejected the Electoral Commission’s (EC) use of the Ghana card as the sole source of identification for one to be registered in the new voters’ register.
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The House unanimously recommended to the commission to include the guarantor system in the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulation, 2023 before it could present it for consideration.
Legislators were of the view that unless and until the challenges confronting the issuance of the Ghana Card were dealt with, using the Ghana Card as the only medium of voter registration would negatively impact the electoral roll and thereby deny some otherwise qualified persons from registering to vote.
"The EC should tarry slowly until everybody eligible voter is afforded the opportunity to register and procure the Ghana before the legislation of such a compulsion," they said.
Report adoption
The House took the decision after legislators adopted the report of the Committee of the Whole on the draft constitutional instrument.
The report, signed by the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, who is also the Speaker of Parliament, said it was not the time for the EC to introduce and implement the Ghana card as the only means of identification of citizenship for the purposes of voter registration.
The report was presented to the House by the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, who moved the motion for the House to adopt the committee's report.
The reports captured the concerns of MPs from both sides of the House raised during previous meetings by the Special Budget Committee and the Committee of the Whole with the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa; the Executive Secretary of the NIA Prof. Ken Attafuah, and the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.
It was premised on the fact that the EC could only lay the new C.I. in Parliament for admission and consideration if it gave favourable consideration to the concerns raised by MPs.
Ready to support reforms
The report said MPs, having thoroughly interrogated the issues and reforms being contemplated by the EC, were ready to support for any effort that would enable every Ghanaian to get a Ghana Card because it was the law.
It, however, said the legislators would not accept and would reject any effort that was geared towards making the EC use the Ghana Card as the only medium to qualify a person who was eligible to vote in 2024 elections.
That, it said, was premised on the fact that indeed Ghana had come of age and could boast of a credible national identification card (Ghana Card) to transact business with.
“However, even in the face of a number of identification options given in the past, and even in the operation of the NIA, some citizens are unable to register for the national card due to the existence of serious challenges the authority is confronted with,” it said.
Oath
Per the report, MPs noted that introduction of Ghana Card to deal with the challenge of multiplicity of identification cords and documents was most laudable and supported by all parties and governments.
The legislators, however, proposed that a person who applied for registration but could not provide as evidence of identification card issued by the NIA because he or she had not been registered by the NIA or not registered by the NIA but had not been issued with the national identification card shall be required by the EC to produce a relative to provide evidence of identification on oath in accordance with the provisions of the Oath Act.
“Where a person applies for registration as a voter but has no relative to provide evidence of identification on oath, the EC shall require two persons registered with the NIA and issued with the national identification card to identify that person under oath in accordance with the provisions of the Oath Act,” it said.
The indicated the MPs drew the attention of the EC, NIA and the Finance Ministry to an earlier promise of the NIA, as of July 2022, that it would complete a full registration of all citizens aged 15 and above.
“At that time the EC had sought the approval of Parliament to amend the C.I. that promise could not be fulfilled.
“If the C.l. had been passed then, it would have meant that many otherwise qualified persons could not have been registered then. The same promise is being repeated,” it said.
New registration centres.
The Committee expressed strong objection to the limitation of registration centers to only the regional and district capitals and centres determined by the EC.
Access to such centres by Ghanaians from many communities might pose serious challenge.
“The explanation of the EC that Regulations 2(1) and 2(2) of the new C.l. have given the EC sufficient authority to create centres when the need arises are not specific and mandatory enough.
“The areas for the centres to be created must be specifically stated In the C. I. as done in the case of the district centres. In that regard the committee to the EC to go further downstream by adopting registration centres at the various electoral areas.
With regards to the sharing of data between the EC and the NIA, the members sought to find out the technical infrastructure put in place for such a purpose.
The committee was informed that there was no such technical infrastructure for automatic sharing of data between the EC and the NIA.
“However, the EC said it would provide data of persons to be expunged from the register to the NIA for verification,” it said.
The Committee of the Whole, calls on Parliament to consider the C. L. when presented to the House, subject to the above proposed revision and amendments.
Speaker’s warning
Soon after the House had adopted the Committee of the Whole’s report, the Speaker said the House would now not depend on the assurances from the EC or the NIA but “we are now making inputs into the preparation of the C.I.”
He indicated that a constitutional instrument was different from an Executive Instrument which was issued by the Executive and Parliament did not have hand in its passage.
“In the C.I. we have a hand; by law we cannot compel the EC to perform its function and neither can they also compel us to perform ours,” he said.
He therefore said when the concerns of the House were captured in the new C.I., it would be admitted and considered by the House
“If that is not done definitely, we have a say and it was agreed by leadership that the C.I. will not be admitted and considered by the House,” he added.