Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, a former Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), has criticised the commission for abandoning the guarantor system for the continuous voter registration exercise.

In an exclusive statement to the Daily Graphic, he said the EC’s claim that the guarantor system was ineffective and that the Ghana Card should be the sole means of registration was untenable.

According to Dr Afari-Gyan, since the National Identification Authority (NIA) permitted the guarantor regime in the registration for the Ghana Card, nothing prevented the EC from doing the same for the voter registration exercise and making the system as robust as it desired.

“What prevents the commission from instituting, in the upcoming constitutional instrument (CI), a guarantor regime as robust as or even more robust than the one being used by the NIA for doing the Ghana Card?” he queried.

Guarantor system

In accordance with Article 11 (7) of the 1992 Constitution, the EC intends to present a CI to Parliament to govern the continuous voter registration process.

According to the article, the CI, which seeks to make the Ghana Card the sole identification document for the exercise and the only means of registration, will enter into force after 21 sitting days unless the house annuls it by a vote of not less than two-thirds of all Members of Parliament (MPs).

As part of the pre-layout of the CI, the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Adukwei Mensa, told Parliament last month that the Ghana Card, as the sole registration document, would ensure that only eligible Ghanaians registered.

According to her, such a move would provide the country with a credible voter roll and improve the electoral process. The EC chief stated that the guarantor system was abandoned because it was prone to abuse, undermining the credibility of the electoral roll.

“The challenges with the guarantor system are that it opens the door for registered voters or guarantor contractors to guarantee/vouch for persons who are less than 18 years and it allows the guarantors to vouch for foreigners. Such unqualified persons used the door of the guarantor system to try to get onto the register.

“Truth be told, the guarantor system was not the best under any circumstances, but we did not have other options, since a significant number of people did not possess the Ghana Card at the time. Even, then, we had 10 million Ghanaians using the Ghana Card to back their citizenship at the time of registration,” she said.

Criticisms

Dr Afari-Gyan is not the only one who has criticised the EC’s proposed CI.

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), a civil society organisation, have criticised the CI, particularly the EC’s decision to scrap the guarantor system, which previously allowed a registered voter to vouch for the citizenship of another person seeking to register.

The NDC has called the CI “obnoxious and a threat to the country’s democracy,” and has directed its MPs not to leave Parliament to fight the proposed law.

According to the CDD, eliminating the guarantor system would make it extremely difficult for many Ghanaians to register, ultimately infringing on their constitutional right to vote.

“The current CI 126 allows for a guarantor to guarantee for up to five people; this can be reduced to three,” it said.

Citizenship

Dr. Afari-Gyan, the EC’s longest-serving Chairperson, reiterated his criticism of the use of the Ghana Card as the sole source document for the registration process.

In an earlier statement to the Daily Graphic in August last year, he stated that making the Ghana Card the sole identification document would disenfranchise millions of qualified Ghanaians and that the EC’s move was therefore contrary to electoral inclusivity, fairness, and justice.

In his new critique, he stated that he was not opposed to the use of the Ghana Card and did not disagree with the EC that the Ghana Card was very important and would help to clean up the electoral roll.

“I think that it is grossly unfair and misleading to try to create the impression that the debate over whether or not, as of now, the Ghana Card should be the only basis for a Ghanaian citizen to be registered as a voter revolves wholly around how useful the card is. I have not heard anybody saying that the Ghana Card is not a good thing to have or use,” he said.

According to him, his disagreement stemmed from the EC’s gradual adoption of the Ghana Card as the sole means of citizenship, which is required to register as a voter.

His contention was that the Ghana Card did not bestow citizenship but rather validated that citizenship; thus, making the Ghana Card the sole means of registration meant the EC was attempting to define those without the card as not citizens of Ghana eligible to vote.

“In my view, as of now, it cannot be reasonably assumed that every Ghanaian of voting age has the Ghana Card, or can get one well ahead of the next elections,” he said.

“In fact, given that even under continuous registration there is a cut-off period, during which time one can register as a voter but cannot vote in the following election, I think it is far too early yet to make a fetish of Ghana Card as the only basis for registering a Ghanaian citizen as a voter,” Dr Afari-Gyan averred.

Source: graphic.com.gh