Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has hinted that the Ghana Card might be the only primary document for the voters’ register for the upcoming 2024 general election.
According to the vice president, the use of the Ghana Card as the only primary document for the voters’ register is very important because it would help resolve many issues in Ghana’s electoral system, including the issue of underage voting.
Speaking at the 2022 Civil Service Week Celebration Awards Ceremony, Dr. Bawumia added that the use of the Ghana Card will also save the country some much-needed resources.
“Very soon you will see that our problems with voter registration will disappear. It is only a matter of time- if not this election (the 2024 general elections) then the elections after that. Because we spend so much on voter registration, but once a unique identity is determined, you cannot have underage (persons) coming to vote and all that.
“I think the Ghana Card will be a good identification document, as we are already seeing so that we will sanitise the voter registration system. In many countries, once you’re 18 (years) you are essentially on the voters’ register. There is no complication in going to fight and break legs as we register,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, while addressing the media at Parliament, claimed that the EC is seeking to compile another voters’ register with the base document being the Ghana Card.
According to him, his outfit will kick against such moves by the Commission because the new register is a wasteful expenditure and will disenfranchise a lot of Ghanaians who have not registered or secured their Ghana cards yet.
The EC has, however, dismissed the claims that it intends to compile a new Voters’ register for the 2024 election.
“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,” the Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe said.
Posted by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh.
