Ghana Card is the surest way to ensure integrity of the voters' register — EC

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa has said the proposed Constitu­tional Instrument (CI) which seeks to make the Ghana Card the sole document for registration as a voter will make the voters' register credible in voting.

Jean Mensa said the EC will discard the guarantor system for the continuous voter registration exercise.

The majority of Ghanaians have not provided any sound justification for the EC's proposed repeal of the guarantor system.

According to her, the Ghana Card is the surest way to ensure the integrity of the voters' register adding that the guarantor system had outlived its usefulness.

Addressing the press on Thursday, August 17, 2023, she said With regard to the CI that is before Parliament, we do not intend to put back the guarantor system because we do not believe that the guarantor system has worked for us.

Thirty years ago when we took this journey, and we did not have a Ghana Card, it was only proper that we adopt a system that would ensure that people who didn’t have any documentation could register and thirty years on, we now have the Ghana Card, and we must rely on it, and it is the surest way to ensure the integrity of our register.

Jean Mensa has always insisted that the current draft CI with its provisions – including the use of the Ghana Card as the sole source of identification for voters – remains relevant to Ghana's electoral process.

In a presentation on the draft CI's status to parliament, she maintained that the proposal seeks to promote a continuous registration of new voters, as well as cleanse the electoral system of unqualified persons.

The Chairman of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee, Dr. Dominic Ayine, argued that there is no need for a new CI since the existing one used for the 2020 registration is still very potent.

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