The Director of International Relations for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alexander Percival Segbefia, says Ghana’s economy is in shambles and the Electoral Commission (EC) proceeding to make the Ghana Card the sole requirement for voter registration will burden the country.
Mr. Segbefia said Ghana is in an economic crisis and that the EC should avoid worsening the plight of the Ghanaians with any problem that will incur further costs.
The Electoral Commission has submitted a Constitutional Instrument (CI) in Parliament to make Ghana Card the only requirement for the voter registration exercise, saying it is still the valid and surest way to rid the register of minors and foreigners.
According to the EC’s Director of Electoral Services, Dr Serebour Quaicoe it is possible for eligible voters to get their Ghana Cards before the end of their registration on October 7, 2024.
However, Alexander Segbefia believes the whole proposed CI is wrong.
During his submission on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, Alexander Percival Segbefia, referenced a similar attempt by the Electoral Commission to prevent people from securing a voters ID with the old voter’s ID and the National Health Insurance Card but it later rescinded its decision.
“In the past, we were a country of precedence and law, when it was challenged we were told that anybody who had National Insurance Card… the EC had to go back and take all the people who had been verified by national health insurance card, they take them out,” Alexander Segbefia said.
The former Deputy Chief of Staff under the John Mahama administration indicated that the posture of the Electoral Commission is invalid because it goes against the Constitutional Instrument which makes only Ghana Card the identification document for voter registration.
“You have taken away the possibility of anyone, not the EC, going to the court of their own volition. To say, this register you are having now is not valid because you have passed the CI which said that the only document you can use to be on the register is the Ghana Card,” he added.
By: Naomi Kwofie | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
