Parliament Rubber-Stamps EC’s Controversial New Voters Register.

Despite of the widespread public contention and a couple of lawsuits, the Ghanaians Parliament has voted in favour of the Constitutional Instrument (C.I. 126) to give the EC green light to compile a new voters’ register.

The Ghanaian Parliament today voted 106 in favour of the C.I 126 by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) majority in Parliament, against the 92 votes against the regulation by the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC).

There were a total of 198 MPs in the Chamber out of a total of 275 MPs, as many have already hit the underground campaign trail.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu had prompted the votes, believing that the C.I will allow the EC to disenfranchise millions of Ghanaians in the December elections.

Whatsup News gathered that this vote from Parliament is likely to have an impact on the lawsuits currently in the Supreme Court  against the compilation of the new electoral roll.

The NDC had filed a suit against the EC in the Supreme Court, arguing that the EC’s attempt to compile a new register was unconstitutional and that it will also lead to the disenfranchisement of millions of Ghanaians.

The NDC had argued that the attempt to scrap the current voters’ ID card as a primary document needed to be registered in the new proposed register amounts to disenfranchising several people because the main primary documents proposed as standard eligibility documents, namely National ID cards, and Ghana passport, are held by barely 10 million Ghanaians compared to the more than 18 million eligible to register.

The court had asked the EC to file its defence to the suit. The EC on Monday filed its response to the NDC’s suit, saying the existing voters’ ID card cannot be accepted as a form identity for registration onto the new register mainly because the Supreme Court had judged them illegal in the Abu Ramadan case of 2016.

The Electoral Commission also argues that some of the existing cards were procured through processes that did not require card owners to prove their citizenship.

Critics have questioned the motives of the EC, as several civil society groups, opposition political parties and prominent individuals have kicked against the register.

“I read the EC’s legal argument and I am still wondering whether they really had a lawyer. If the voters’ ID card is a fruit of a poisoned tree as the EC lawyer argued, then what will they say about the outcome of the 2012 and 2016 elections? The outcomes will also be described as fruits of a poisoned tree. In effect, the legitimacy of the sitting president should be questioned. I just don’t see how a lawyer can advance this argument, from a common-sense perspective,” wrote Professor Yaw Gyampoh, a political science lecturer at the University of Ghana-Legon.

It is unclear how the Supreme Court will rule the case, particularly given controversy raised by online news presenter Kevin Taylor, who alleged that President Akufo Addo had called the Chief Justice Anin Yeboah to manipulate the case against the NDC.