Bawku Central MP Announces He Is Suing EC Over New Register

The embattlement of the Electoral Commission over Jean Mensah’s decision to compile a new voters’ register has incurred one more reckoning from the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga.

Mr. Ayariga has announced that he is suing the EC over its decision to exclude the birth certificate from the list of source documents acceptable for registration onto the new voters’ register.

“We will go to court compel them to allow the use of the birth certificate as a medium of identification because we believe the system should be based on the proper legal platform,” Mr. Ayariga announced on Accra based Joy Prime today.

According to him, the EC’s decision to exclude the birth certificate as a legal form of identity is “ridiculous.”

Already, the EC has been dragged before the Supreme Court by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) over its decision to compile a new register and also exclude the existing voters’ register as a legitimate source document for registering onto the new register.

According to the NDC, the EC per the law has the mandate to compile the register once and then update it subsequently. The current voters’ register was first compiled in the 90s and has since been updated until Jean Mensah became Charwoman of the EC.

The NDC’s second argument is that the EC has no authority to exclude the existing voters ID card as a source document for registration onto the new register if the Supreme Court rules for the compilation to go on.

Hon. Mahama Ayariga’s beef is with the EC’s decision to exclude the birth certificate from the list of legitimate documents for registration onto the new register, pointing out that it is a ridiculous rigmarole since the passport and the NIA accepted the same birth certificate as a source document in printing the Ghana Card which the EC says it accepts as a source document for registration onto the new register.

“The birth certificate is the foundation document and so it is ridiculous that you will accept every other document but the birth certificates because the birth certificate is the basis of the information that the NIA is using for the Ghana Card; the birth certificate is the basis of the passport that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is issuing,” he fumed.

“So why will the Foreign Affairs Ministry accept the birth certificate and issue you a passport and then the NIA will accept the birth certificate and issue you a Ghana Card and yet you the Electoral Commission who is supposed to do the same job of identifying citizens refuse to accept the birth certificate which is the foundation document? In my opinion that is ridiculous,’ Mahama Ayariga said.