Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, the majority leader, has voiced opposition to the practice of requiring the Ghana card to be the only form of identification when registering to vote.
He claimed that since many Ghanaians do not possess cards, it will be difficult for them to rely solely on them.
Relying exclusively on the Ghana Card for voter registration would be premature, according to Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who cited the ongoing difficulties with the National Identification Authority’s (NIA) Ghana Card issuance.
He noted that some eligible voters who have registered for the card are still waiting to receive it, and that many eligible voters have not yet received their cards.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu pointed out that the exclusion of eligible voters who did not possess the Ghana Card was a reason for criticism of the EC’s initial decision to tie voter registration for the District Level Elections (DLE) to the Ghana Card. He restated that the same problems would arise if the Ghana Card were the only document required for voter registration.
“So many people don’t have the Ghana card and some of the people who have registered to get the card have not been given the card. And given the pendency of the District Level Elections (DLE) to have tied registration to the Ghana card knowing that some of the eligible Ghanaians have not been registered to get the Ghana cards…to say that you were restricting it to the Ghana card was going to be problematic.”
“If they can assure that every eligible Ghanaian will be provided with the Ghana card then you can bring the instrument based on the Ghana card. But if you admit that not every eligible Ghanaian has been registered or can be registered then it becomes difficult to tie the registration solely to the Ghana card,” he stated.
On September 12, the EC launched a restricted voter registration drive with the goal of registering people who had turned 18 years old since the last registration drive.
Those who have not yet registered with the commission have the chance to have their names added to the voter roll during the 21-day exercise.
Concerns were expressed by some members of the public and political parties that the EC was attempting on purpose to keep some eligible individuals from taking part in the registration process.
