Only Ghana Card Will Be Accepted For Voter Registration In Next Election – EC

THE Electoral Commission has reportedly served notice that it will only accept the Ghana Card as the legitimate source of identification for voter registration during the next election in 2024.

The GHANA News Agency reports that the notice was given by Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, the EC’s Director of Electoral Services, in an interview.

He is said to have revealed that the Commission has already reached a consensus with the political parties and is waiting for an amendment of the registration laws by Parliament to give legal backing to the new standard.

Consequently, he warned that when the law is amended, persons without the Ghana Card will not be allowed to register as voters.

“We are going to amend the law to incorporate that. What it means is that going forward, anybody who turns 18 and wants to register, you have to come with evidence of the Ghana card to show that you are a Ghanaian and 18 years then we will register the person. You can’t use your passport or guarantors when the law is amended,” Quaicoe is quoted as saying.

The National Identification Authority, as of October 2021, said it had issued cards to about 12 million Ghanaians. The latest census by the statistical service reported that there are some 30.8million Ghanaians.

In the last voter registration exercise for the 2020 elections, the EC accepted the Ghanaian passport and Ghana card as proof of citizenship. Persons without these documents were made to provide two guarantors who had already registered to get registered. Sereboe Quaicoe says that the laxity will no longer be offered by the EC.

Article 51 of the 1992 Constitution grants the EC the power to, by constitutional instrument, make regulations for the effective performance of its functions, and in particular, for the registration of voters, the conduct of public elections and referenda.

The 2020 voters registration exercise was governed by the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) (Amendment) Regulation, 2020 (C.I. 126), which was passed by Parliament in June 2020.