Parliament has by unanimous decision recommended to the Electoral Commission (EC) to include the guarantor system into the new Constitutional Instrument (CI) on elections in the country.
The House essentially pointed out that the move by the Electoral Commission (EC) to make the Ghana Card the only document for continuous voter registration in the country may stop some eligible Ghanaians from getting onto the voters register ahead of the 2024 general elections.
To this end, the Parliament concluded that the guarantor system which is a means of getting an eligible voter with the required document registered must also be maintained.
The report of Parliament’s Committee of the whole which was adopted by the House on Friday 31 March 2023, recommended the insertion of two new sub-regulations to regulation 1 of the proposed CI. They are sub-regulation 4 and 5 which states as follows;
4) Notwithstanding sub-regulation (3) a person who applies for registration but cannot provide as evidence of identification card issued by the National Identification Authority because:
a. the person has not been registered by the National Identification Authority; or
b. the person has been registered by the National Identification Authority but has not been issued with the national identification card;
That person shall be required by the Commission to produce a relative to provide evidence of identification on oath in accordance with the provisions of the Oath Act.
5) Subject to sub-regulation (4), where a person applies for registration as a voter but has no relative to provide evidence of identification on oath, the Commission shall require two persons registered with the National Identification Authority and issued with the national identification card to identify that person under oath in accordance with the provisions of the Oath Act.
Following the Adoption of the report by the House, the Speaker of Parliament, Rt honourable Alban Bagbin, who chaired the Committee of the Whole, is expected to write to the chairperson of the EC, Mrs Jean Mensa, communicating the recommendation of the House to her for the Commission’s perusal and necessary action.
Listen to the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin in the audio below:
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