Story by: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Minority Caucus in Ghana’s Parliament is seeking for the head of the electoral management body, the Electoral Commission (EC), to be hauled before the August House to brief Members of Parliament on the process to compile a new voters’ register with the Ghana Card as identification.
Information available to GBC Online shows that the Subsidiary Legislation Committee is currently, perusing a draft Constitutional Instrument (CI) on the registration of voters.
The Minority had earlier raised issues with the possibility of a new register on the sole basis of the new Ghana card.
The group believes compiling a new voters’ register will be a wasteful expenditure and disenfranchise many Ghanaians who have not yet registered or secured their cards.
The Minority has said this endeavour will cost about $80 million.
Presenting his case on the floor of Parliament, MP for Banba Constituency, who doubles as the Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Mr. Ahmed Ibrahim, explained that the briefing by officials of the electoral management body could help prevent controversy.
“Now that the Subsidiary Legislation Committee is doing what we call pre-laying… (maybe) the EC can appear before us next week before we adjourn so that when it comes and briefs us as a committee of the whole, then we juxtapose the two inputs and be able to see how we can find a way to solve these problems so that when the time comes, we wouldn’t be confronted with some controversial issues,” Mr. Ibrahim argued on Friday, July 15, 2022.
However, the Ranking Member of the Committee and MP for Akwapim South, Mr. Osei Bonsu Amoah, indicated that the committee has begun considering the C.I. and that it’s not necessary for the EC to be in Parliament now.
“We have almost completed the discussions. Regarding the Ghana card guarantors, we asked the EC to go back and look at it, so I don’t think there is any need to drag them here at this time,” Mr. Amoah reiterated.