A former Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has reprimanded the commission for its transition to dispose of the underwriter system for the persistent voter registration exercise.
In an explanation made only to the Daily Graphic, he said the conflict of the EC that the underwriter framework was not strong and, thusly, the Ghana Card ought to be the sole method for enlistment was unsound.
As per Dr Afari-Gyan, to the extent that the Public Recognizable proof Power (NIA) permitted the underwriter system in the enlistment for the Ghana Card, nothing kept the EC from doing likewise for the citizen enrollment exercise and making that framework more strong as it needed it.
"What keeps the commission from founding, in the impending protected instrument (CI), an underwriter system as strong as or much more powerful than the one being utilized by the NIA for doing the Ghana Card?" he questioned.
Underwriter framework
In accordance with Article 11 (7) of the 1992 Constitution, the EC is looking to lay a CI before Parliament to control the nonstop elector enlistment work out.
Per the article, the CI, which looks for, in addition to other things, to make the Ghana Card the sole distinguishing proof record for the activity and the main means for enrollment, when laid in Parliament, will come into force following 21 sitting days, with the exception of the house repeals it by a vote of at least 66% of all Individuals from Parliament (MPs).
Last month, the Director of the EC, Jean Adukwei Mensa, told Parliament, as a component of the pre-laying of the CI, that the Ghana Card as the sole enlistment record would guarantee that just qualified Ghanaians enrolled as electors.
Such a move, she said, would give the country a valid citizen roll and improve its electing cycle.
The EC supervisor said her outfit discarded the underwriter framework since it was vulnerable to mishandle, which impacted the believability of the discretionary roll.
"The difficulties with the underwriter framework are that it opens the entryway for enlisted electors or underwriter project workers to ensure/vouch for people who are under 18 years and it permits the underwriters to vouch for outsiders. Such inadequate people utilized the entryway of the underwriter framework to attempt to get onto the register.
"Believe it or not, the underwriter framework was not awesome for any reason, yet we didn't have different choices, since a critical number of individuals didn't have the Ghana Card at that point. Indeed, then, we had 10 million Ghanaians utilizing the Ghana Card to back their citizenship at the hour of enlistment," she said.
Reactions
Dr Afari-Gyan isn't the main individual to scrutinize the EC over the proposed CI.
The CI has confronted a reaction from the resistance Public Majority rule Congress (NDC) and the Middle for Popularity based Improvement (CDD), a common society association, particularly concerning the choice by the EC to discard the underwriter framework, which up until recently permitted an enrolled elector to vouch for the citizenship of someone else trying to enlist.
The NDC has depicted the CI as "unpleasant and a danger to the nation's majority rules government" and coordinated its MPs not to missing themselves from Parliament to improve the battle against the proposed regulation.
For the CDD, the end of the underwriter framework would make it undeniably challenging for some Ghanaians to enroll and that would, eventually, encroach on their established right to cast a ballot.
"The ongoing CI 126 takes into consideration an underwriter to ensure for up to five individuals; this can be diminished to three," it said.
Citizenship
Dr Afari-Gyan, who is the longest-serving Executive throughout the entire existence of the EC, further emphasized his analysis of the utilization of the Ghana Card as the sole source archive for the enrollment work out.
In a past proclamation to the Day to day Realistic in August last year, he had said making the Ghana Card the sole ID record would disappoint a great many qualified Ghanaians and as such the move by the EC was against discretionary inclusivity, reasonableness and equity.
In his new evaluate, he said he was not against the utilization of the Ghana Card and didn't likewise contradict the EC that the Ghana Card was of extraordinary significance and would go quite far to clean the electing roll
"I feel that it is terribly unjustifiable and deluding to attempt to make the feeling that the discussion about whether or not, at this point, the Ghana Card ought to be the main reason for a Ghanaian resident to be enrolled as a citizen rotates completely around how valuable the card is. I have not heard anyone saying that the Ghana Card is definitely not something to be thankful for to have or utilize," he said.
As indicated by him, his conflict was on the grounds that the EC was progressively making the Ghana Card the main method for citizenship, which is the most ideal measure for one to enroll as an elector.
It was his dispute that the Ghana Card didn't give citizenship to anybody but instead approved that citizenship; hence, making the Ghana Card the sole method for enlistment implied the EC was attempting to characterize those without the card as not residents of Ghana qualified to cast a ballot.
"In my view, at this point, it can't be sensibly expected that each Ghanaian of casting a ballot age has the Ghana Card, or can stretch out one quite a ways past the following races," he said.
"As a matter of fact, considering that significantly under consistent enrollment there is a removed period, during which time one can enlist as an elector yet can't cast a ballot in the accompanying political decision, I think it is extremely early yet to make an obsession of Ghana Card as the main reason for enlisting a Ghanaian resident as a citizen," Dr Afari-Gyan affirmed.