Dr Serebour Quaicoe
The Electoral Commission says no Ghanaian of voting age and willing to secure a voter’s ID will be left behind.
According to the EC, all eligible Ghanaians who have Ghana cards will be registered before the district-level elections in 2023.
The Director of Elections at the EC, Dr Serebour Quaicoe, speaking on Accra based Citi FM assured that “By the discussions that we have, we are convinced that anybody that is qualified to register and is willing to register will be covered.”
This follows the Commission seeking to have a law passed to make the Ghana card the only identity document for registering to vote.
The draft C.I. Public Regulations 2021 is expected to regulate the upcoming voter registration exercise.
The current modes of identification for registering to vote include a passport, a national ID, an existing voter ID or two guarantors.
Though some people, especially opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have expressed fear that the move will disenfranchise qualified voters because a handful of Ghanaians will have access to the Ghana card before the voter registration.
However Dr. Quaicoe has allay the fear saying that any challenges with the process will be resolved.
“We believe that the challenges are bound to happen, and the challenges are bound to be addressed… There is no way we can stay without addressing the challenges.
“It has gone through a lot of discussions, a lot of interactions, a lot of stakeholder engagements before we came to this conclusion.”
He mentioned that the discussions on the review of the law have been ongoing for about two years.
By Vincent Kubi