According to Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), the proposed Constitutional Instrument (CI), which seeks to make the Ghana Card the only document for registration as a voter, will increase the credibility of the voters’ register in elections.
According to Jean Mensa, the EC will abandon the guarantor system for the ongoing voter registration campaign.
The majority of Ghanaians haven’t offered any convincing arguments in support of the EC’s plan to abolish the guarantor system.
She added that the guarantor system had outlived its usefulness and that the Ghana Card is the safest way to guarantee the accuracy of the voter register.
Speaking to the media on August 17, 2023, she said “With regard to the CI that is before Parliament, we do not intend to put back the guarantor system because we do not believe that the guarantor system has worked for us.
“Thirty years ago when we took this journey, and we did not have a Ghana Card, it was only proper that we adopt a system that would ensure that people who didn’t have any documentation could register and thirty years on, we now have the Ghana Card, and we must rely on it, and it is the surest way to ensure the integrity of our register.”
Jean Mensa has consistently insisted that the provisions of the current draft CI, including the use of the Ghana Card as the only form of voter identification, are still applicable to Ghana’s electoral process.
She argued that the proposal aims to support ongoing voter registration and purge the electoral system of ineligible people during a presentation on the draft CI’s status to parliament.
Dr. Dominic Ayine, the chairman of the subsidiary legislation committee, argued that the existing CI used for the 2020 registration is still very effective and that there is no need for a new one.
