Ghana Card will prevent unqualified persons from deciding Ghana’s President – EC

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Jean Mensa, has appealed to Parliament to adopt the proposed Constitutional Instrument (CI) to remove all unqualified persons from the voter register.

The CI has been on the table of Parliament, and the House needed the EC Chair to brief legislators to make a determination on the matter ahead of the 2024 general and parliamentary elections.

Mrs. Mensa had to cut a trip to Lagos short from observer duties in the ongoing Nigeria elections to address Ghana’s lawmakers.

One of the critical issues that had divided the House was the proposal to use only the Ghana Card as the form of identification to register voters.

This implies prospective voters cannot use a guarantor or the Ghana Passport to establish their identity.

Appearing in the House on Tuesday, February 28, Mrs. Mensa stated: “The use of the Ghana Card as the sole means of identification will prevent foreigners and minors from getting onto our voters register”.

She was confident that the action would be the solution to “prevent unqualified persons from influencing our elections and having a say as to who should govern our country”.

Mrs. Mensa pointed out that the matter at hand “borders on the sovereignty of our nation. Simply put, only eligible Ghanaians must be allowed to vote”.

Therefore, she called on the MPs “to support our efforts to prevent foreigners and minors from getting onto our electoral roll”.

With the National Identification Authority (NIA) estimating that about 16.9 million Ghanaians aged 18 and above are captured on the Ghana Card system, Mrs. Mensa was emphatic that no Ghanaian will be disenfranchised.

Mrs. Mensa further explained that under the new electoral reforms, registration for a voter card would be conducted all year round.