Electoral Commission — The usefulness of the guarantee scheme has expired

According to the Electoral Commission (EC), the guarantor system has outlived its usefulness. As a result, there is a need for a mechanism that would ensure that people are registered on the basis of their merits rather than having others vouch for their age and nationality.

The new Constitutional Instrument (CI) that would mandate the use of the Ghana Card as the sole form of identity for new applicants to register as voters, it said, was recommended for that purpose.

Indeed, the Ghana Card makes it simpler to distinguish between minors and foreigners by displaying the cardholder’s age and nationality, according to the statement.

Therefore, the Electoral Commission has encouraged the government to urgently give the National Identification Authority the help it needs to register all eligible people before the registration exercise next year.

Event

A Deputy Commissioner in charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Bossman Eric Asare, expressed the commitment of the Electoral Commission to ensure that every eligible citizen was registered as a voter to participate in the 2023 district-level elections and the 2024 general election at a press conference in Accra yesterday to provide an update on the ongoing limited voter registration exercise. Electoral Commission

The ongoing limited registration operation, according to him, is a success, and the Electoral Commission might surpass its goal of 700,000 registrations.

Dr. Asare stated, “Depending on how the registration exercise is going and the remaining days, we may increase the numbers to 800,000 or 900,000.”

Currently, the commission has registered 673,276 persons, he said, adding that “this is very remarkable” because “we are currently averaging 50,000 registrations per day since last week.”

86.1% of all registered voters, according to Dr. Asare, were first-time voters.

The number of people in the 18–20 age group is 580,800, or 86.3 percent; those in the 21–35 age group are 74,010, or 11 percent; and those in the 36–45 age group are 9,471, or 1.4 percent.

The remaining age groups are 46–55 years (4603 or 0.7%), 56–65 years (2,736, or 0.4%), 66–75 years (1,280, or 0.2%), and 76 years and over (376, or 0.1%).

Commitment

In his statement, Dr. Bossman stated that “the commission is desirous of registering everyone who is eligible; we reiterate that it is not our intention to disenfranchise anyone.”

As a result, he claimed, “The registration centers are becoming empty, but reports reaching us indicate that our officials are fully ready to register all eligible persons who avail themselves at the registration centers before our deadline of October 2, 2023.” The commission had increased the number of kits at its district offices to accommodate the large numbers at the registration centers, he claimed.

He pleaded with parents to discourage their wards under the age of 18 from registering since they might end up in legal trouble.

Challenges

Dr. Bossman added that 7,561 disputed instances, or 1.12% of all registered voters, have been documented by the Electoral Commission at all registration centers as of the 16th day of the registration drive.

The North East Region comes in worst with 14 cases, while the Greater Accra Region ranks first in terms of nominal cases with 1,552.

In reality, according to Dr. Bossman, the Upper West Region leads with 444 instances or 1.9% of the region’s registered voters.

The Savannah and Volta, with 1.8% and 2.3% of cases, respectively, are two more locations with a higher percentage of challenging cases.

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