The Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission, Dr Serebour Quaicoe has rejected false claims by the Minority in Parliament about the Commission’s proposed new voter register.
According to the EC, it will not be compiling new register but only be updating the current register with voters who turn 18 using only the Ghana Card.
The Minority in Parliament in a Press conference addressed by its leader, Haruna Iddrisu had said it has picked indications that the EC plans to roll out a new register with the Ghana Card as sole ID.
“If you used that instrument of a national ID card against a voter population of 17million then there is a critical technical departure from the requirement. We may not even have a voter register to rely on for the conduct of the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary elections because the number of Ghanaians on the voter register far exceeds the number of Ghanaians on the ID cards data and yet the national ID cards have other persons including foreigners on it,” Mr. Iddrisu said, adding that it will be resisted.
However, speaking in an interview on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, the Director of Electoral Services at the EC said the Minority did not read the law before passing their remarks.
“Maybe they (Minority caucus) have not read the law because it doesn’t state there’s going to be a new register,” he said.
According to him, the EC doesn’t plan to compile a new register but rather it is updating the existing one with new 18 year olds.
He said “Indeed the 2020 voters’ register came at a cost so I don’t think anyone at the Electoral Commission will say they want to discard the register. I can assure you that it is the best register ever compiled by the commission; so we have confidence in the register and we will never dispose of it.
“We decided that instead of always changing the register why don’t we go through continuous registrations and that is the new C.I in parliament.”
By Vincent Kubi