The Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam Nartey George, has said that the proposed C.I. presented to Parliament by the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) will lead to over 3 million eligible Ghanaians voters being disenfranchised.
According to him, the draft C.I., which is now before the Subsidiary Committee of Parliament, seeks to make the National Identification Card (Ghana Card) the only primary document needed for the voters’ registration which will disenfranchise a lot of people who do not have the card through no fault of theirs.
Speaking in an, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP alleged that the EC by their insistence on the Ghana Card was trying to skew the 2024 General Election in favour of the ruling New Partocratic Party.
“… Article 42 of the Constitution, which basically sets the framework for voting rights, says that you must be a Ghanaian, you must be of sound mind and you must be 18 years to qualify to be registered into the voters’ register. These are the only qualification.
“A C.I. which is subsidiary to the constitution is now introducing a limit to your ability to exercise that franchise by saying you must have a Ghana Card.
“The NIA (National Identification Authority which is responsible for issuing Ghana Cards) on its own will admit that close to 3.5 million Ghanaians of voting age do not have the Ghana Card. 2 million have not been able to register, another 1.5 million have registered and eight have not been able to receive their cards or their cards have been blocked due to administrative issues,” he said.
The NDC MP added that because of fact that elections in Ghana are often decided by little margins in some cases with less than 50,000 voters, over 3 million people not getting the opportunity to vote will definitely affect the outcome of the 2024 General Elections.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of operations, Samuel Tettey, has disclosed that his outfit would only be using the Ghana Card for the next voters’ registration.
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has welcomed the decision of the EC, saying that it will help sanitise the voters’ register.
