ACEPA backs Minority to reject New CI on Voter Registration
A Parliamentary Think Tank, Africa Center for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) has backed the Minority in Parliament over the new Electoral CI aimed at using only Ghana Card for Voter Registration in the country.
This comes on the back of Parliament sacking officials of the Electoral Commission and the National Identification Authority over the absence of EC chairperson Mrs. Jean Mensah Adukwei.
Officials of the EC and the NIA had been summoned to brief MPs on a new CI seeking to make the Ghana card the only proof of nationality for voter registration.
The CI is also seeking to scrap the guarantor system and limit continuous registration to district offices of the EC.
Commenting on development in Parliament on Starr News the Executive Director for ACEPA, Dr. Rashid Draman stated that the Electoral Commission must reconsider the decision to use only Ghana Card for Voter Registration.
“Yes indeed what is going to happen, if I were Members of Parliament I would kick against the sole use of the Ghana Card. Because we are even here in Accra go out and say you want Ghana and see how difficult it is. If Ghana is going to be the sole identity then we have to make sure that it’s for all our citizens. Until we do that a number of people are going to be disenfranchised and I don’t think this is how our democracy is all about. Already, there are people who are not represented in Parliament and everybody is going about business as if it’s okay,” Mr. Draman stated.
He also expressed worry on the conduct of the Electoral Commission boss over her difficulty in making herself available for Parliament.
“This whole issue of Ghana and the role that it’s going to play in our election and if you put all these together. I think that it is very important that the Chairperson of the EC avails herself before Members of Parliament. I don’t know what the problem is that the Chair of the EC cannot show up before Parliament.
“In this republic as well as in any democracy when Parliament calls no one has an excuse. You can postpone, you can reschedule but to ignore Parliament I think it is quite disturbing.”