Pre-laying debate on CI on Public Elections Regulations, 2022 held

Parliament on Thursday held a heated pre-laying debate on the report of the Special Budget Committee on the Draft Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2022 and other related matters.

In the new Constitutional Instrument (CI) the Electoral Commission (EC) has expressed the intention of using the Ghana Card or ECOWAS Card, as the only form of identification or medium to qualify a citizen of Ghana who is legible to vote to registered or enrolled onto the voters’ register.

The pre-laying debate generated a heated debate between the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Minority and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Majority with the former arguing against it while the latter was in support of it.

The report of the Special Budget Committee, which is chaired by Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business in Parliament, reiterated the Committee’s support for any effort that would enable every Ghanaian to get a Ghana Card because it was the Law.

It emphasised that the Committee had no objections against the EC using the NIA to embark on the registration of eligible voters.

“However, the Committee would like to stress that, it will not accept and would reject any effort that is geared towards making the EC use the Ghana Card as the only medium to qualify a person who is eligible to vote in 2024 elections,” the report said.

“This is premised on the fact that, indeed, Ghana has come of age and can boast of a credible national identification card (Ghana Card) to transact business with.

“However, even in the face of a number of identification options given in the past, and even in the operation of the NIA, some citizens are unable to register for the national card due to the existence of serious challenges the Authority is confronted with.”

The report said it was clear that until the challenges confronting the issuance of the Ghana Card were dealt with, using the Ghana Card as the only medium of voter registration, would negatively impact on the electoral roll and thereby, deny otherwise qualified persons from registering to vote.

Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin said the purpose of the exercise was to get the House to build a consensus on the issue.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu argued that the Majority side were in favour of the adoption of the motion by the House.
He reiterated that the EC was an independent constitutional body which nobody could obstruct from performing its constitutional mandate.

He said the concern of the House must be to ensure that no qualified Ghanaian was disenfranchised.
“But Mr Speaker, let me note that the Electoral Commission cannot be prevented from presenting its CI, however, we must work together to ensure that the right thing is done.”
At the end of the debate the Motion was adopted by the House.

After the adoption of the report of the Committee of the House, a closed-door meeting with the EC and NIA was held on how they intend to address issues raised in the report.

Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority Leader, backed by his immediate predecessor Mr Iddrisu Haruna, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South, raised concerns about the EC’s decision to make the Ghana Card the sole document for voter registration and why the electoral body wanted to limit voter registration to its district offices.

Mr Iddrisu said the Minority were of the view that a lot of Ghanaians through no fault of theirs were not captured by the National Identification Authority (NIA) and, therefore, using the Ghana Card as the sole source document for voter registration would disenfranchise them.