The People’s National Convention (PNC) has thrown its support for the Ghana Card to be used as the sole identification medium for eligible voters who want to get onto the electoral roll.
The party made this known at a press conference held on August 17.
PNC has described as unambiguous the draft C.I. titled: Public Regulations 2021 which is expected to regulate the upcoming continuous voter registration exercise.
Per the C.I, the EC is seeking to make the Ghana Card the sole identification medium for eligible voters who want to get onto the electoral roll.
The party says it backs calls for the usage of the Ghana card based on a six-pointer assessment.
From its assessment, the process will be impeccable, thus, the general public should disregard any attempt by any group to cast aspersions on flaws in the intended process.
Below are excerpts of the brief of the conference signed by PNC’s General Secretary, Janet Asana Nabla.
THE PNC ASSESSMENT SO FAR
- The Electoral Commission used Ghana Card, Passport and 2 guarantors in the absence of the other IDs for the 2020 election. That register remains valid. What is upcoming is continuous registration. The EC has not said it is conducting a new registration exercise.
- The EC has assessed and come to a conclusion that most potential new voters will have the Ghana Card, thereby, eliminating the need for calling for either of the previously used multiple identities. Moreover, the guaranteed system can easily be abused in border areas.
- This is a national policy and like all other systems which have now been changed to register individuals through the Ghana card the EC is doing same. It is nothing new and unfounded.
- It should be noted that, new young people coming in have over two years to acquire their Ghana cards and register to vote. The age for the acquisition of the Ghana card is 16 whilst that for voter registration is 18 giving a whole two-year margin for new voters to acquire a Ghana card. Moreover, the register will be closed in October 2024, so no one will be disenfranchised.
Moreover, the register will be closed in October 2024, so no one will be disenfranchised.
We should also note that, one does not need an ID to vote. That is the beauty of biometric registration. Your best ID is your bio data (your fingerprint)
- Again, following this there will also be no new mass re-registration as was done previously. There is no fear then that a current voter who does not have a Ghana card will be taken of the voter list. In other words there is no fear of disenfranchisement if the person is already on the register
- There are no inhibitions or any reason that prevents any citizen, who is eligible to vote from securing a Ghana Card between now and October 2024 to register on the electoral roll,
It is against this backdrop that the People’s National Convention supported the use of the Ghana Card as the sole or breeder document for purposes of registering citizens into our electoral roll.