The Electoral Commission has justified its use of the ECOWAS ID Card, also known as the Ghana Card, as the most reliable means of identification for registering new voters.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, Deputy Commissioner in Charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Eric Bossman Asare, stated that the guarantor system has outlived its purpose, hence the need for a mechanism that will ensure people are registered on merit rather than others vouching for the age and nationality of applicants.
He made the case that instances of minors and foreigners abusing the guarantor system, which is being employed in the ongoing restricted voter registration exercise, indicate the need for the adoption of a document that will make it simple to determine the applicants’ ages and nationalities.
“Indeed, the Ghana Card shows the age and citizenship of the bearer of the card, making it easier to identify those who are minors and those who are foreigners,” Dr. Bossman Asare said.
The commission argued that this was the reason behind the newly proposed Constitutional Instrument (CI), which stipulates that the Ghana Card must be used as the sole form of identity for all new applicants seeking to register as voters.
Accordingly, Dr. Bossman Asare urged parliament to support the new Constitutional Instrument to abolish the guarantor system.
The EC also called on the government to provide the necessary support to the National Identification Authority to register all qualified persons ahead of the registration exercise next year.
On the ongoing limited registration exercise, the EC described it as successful so far as it has registered some 673,276 till date and that they may exceed the 700,000 target it had set for the exercise.
