Proposed C.I Serves As A Restraint On Citizens' Right To Register And Exercise Franchise In Elections-Minority

The Minority in Parliament has kicked against the proposed Constitutional Instrument (C.I) by the Electoral Commission (EC), as it believes the move will restrain a citizen’s right to register and vote during elections.

According to the minority, the C.I, the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Instrument, 2022, seeks to make the Ghana Card the sole document for the registration of voters onto Ghana’s electoral roll. It indicated that Article 42 of the 1992 Constitution guarantees the right to vote by stating that: “Every citizen of Ghana of eighteen years or above and of sound mind has the right to vote and is entitled to be registered as a voter for the purposes of public elections and referenda“.

Speaking at a press conference today, March 1, 2023, minority leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, indicated that what the Electoral Commission’s proposed C.I seeks to do however, is to restrict the realization of this right of Ghanaians, as Regulation 1 (3) of the proposed C.I states: “A person who applies for registration as a voter shall provide as evidence of identification the National Identification Card issued by the National Identification Authority”.

“Many of you may not be aware of the reasons for our opposition to this proposed C.I. It is against this backdrop that we have assembled you here in what we consider as a national emergency, to state our reasons for our stated opposition to the proposed C.I… Clearly, the proposed C.I which makes the Ghana Card the sole requirement for voter registration serves as a restraint on citizen’s right to register and exercise their franchise in elections.”

Dr Cassiel Ato Forson

Dr Forson revealed that the requirement of Article 42 of the 1992 Constitution is evidence of citizenship and not evidence or proof of identification. As such, he noted that any evidence of citizenship should therefore qualify a person to be registered. This, he explained, is why under the current C.I 91 as amended by C.I 126, Ghanaian Passports and guarantor system are allowed as evidence of citizenship.

“It is important to remind the Electoral Commission headed by Madam Jean Mensah that the Commission is enjoined by the constitution to advance the right to vote and not introduce any law that seeks to curtail same.”

Dr Cassiel Ato Forson

Also, Dr Forson opined that under Article 45(e) of the Constitution, the Electoral Commission is to “undertake programmes for the expansion of the registration of voters”. Instead, he stated that the EC rather seeks to undertake a programme for the restriction of the registration of voters.

Commenting on the issuance of Ghana Cards, the minority leader highlighted that the National Identification Authority (NIA), which is responsible for the issuance of the Ghana Card has admitted that there is a backlog of millions of Ghanaians who are yet to be issued the Ghana Card.

Issuing of Ghana cards to citizens

 The NIA, he revealed, has admitted that about 3.5 million Cards have been locked up in bonded warehouses due to its indebtedness of about GHS 1.5 billion ($117m) to the private partner of the NIA, which has contracted loans from banks to undertake the printing of these cards.

Furthermore, he highlighted that it is also a fact that the registration process for the Ghana Card has been characterized by several difficulties, including logistical constraints, of which the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Jean Mensa, in the Daily Graphic of Tuesday, September 13, 2022, front page, is reported to have admonished the National Identification Authority (NIA) to “make Ghana Card acquisition process faster”.

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“This is a clear admission that there are problems with the issuance of the Ghana Card which the Electoral Commission wants to use as the sole proof of citizenship. As we speak, millions of eligible Ghanaian voters do not have the Ghana Card and therefore stand the risk of being completely disenfranchised…”

Dr Cassiel Ato Forson

Touching on the guarantor system, the minority leader revealed that the proposed C.I seeks to completely eliminate the use of the Guarantor System for the purpose of proving one’s eligibility to be captured onto the voters register. This proposition, he reckoned, is a deliberate plot to deprive millions of Ghanaians the opportunity to register and have their names on the electoral roll.

For emphasis, Dr Forson underscored that the Electoral Commission was pushed to provide evidence to back the claim of so-called abuse of the guarantor system. According to him, the EC indicated that in the 2019 voter registration for instance, only 15,474 people, representing just 0.09% of the total of 17,029,981 registered voters, were challenged on the basis of the guarantor system.

This statistic, Dr Forson expressed, is a very “insignificant and immaterial percentage” to warrant a total abrogation of the guarantor system, particularly at a time many do not have the Ghana Card.