The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has scrapped its plan to require the Ghana Card as the sole identity document for voter registration, following a decision made during an Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting in Accra chaired by EC Chairperson Jean Mensa.
This means that a Constitutional Instrument (CI) intended to enforce this requirement for the December 7 general elections will no longer proceed.
Initially, the EC aimed to replace the CI, which permitted the use of passports and a guarantor system for voter registration, citing concerns about the outdated nature of the guarantor system in establishing a credible and reliable voter registration database.
However, the proposed change faced opposition, with the main opposition party alleging political bias in favor of the ruling party.
Some Members of Parliament also objected to the move, arguing that it would disenfranchise many potential voters, particularly considering the challenges citizens face in obtaining the national digital ID card.
Data from the Ghana National Identification Authority revealed that only about 17.8 million Ghanaians have registered for the Ghana Card, and fewer than 17.1 million have collected it, despite the country’s population estimated to be close to 34 million.
In response to feedback, the EC has agreed to maintain the use of indelible ink for manual fingerprinting as an alternative to biometric voter verification, addressing concerns raised earlier by the opposition about the proposed shift from manual fingerprinting to electronic biometric verification.
