The Electoral Commission says it is not in the process of compiling a new voters register, as claimed by the Minority in Parliament.
The Minority raised concerns that this will be a wasteful expenditure as it will cost about $80 million and will disenfranchise a lot of Ghanaians who have not registered or secured their Ghana cards yet.
In an interview on Eyewitness News, the Director of the Electoral Services Department at the Electoral Commission, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe said the EC is only demanding the Ghana card for a “continuous registration” exercise, and not to compile a new register.
“We already compiled a register in 2020, we only want to roll out continuous registration. It is only for those who are going for the continuous registration that we are demanding for the Ghana card.”
Dr. Serebour further dispelled assertions that the process would be a wasteful venture.
“Of course, we will have to print cards, among others, unless we are saying we will no longer update our voter register. As far as the aforementioned things will be done, we need to incur some costs. But this will not be as expensive as compiling a new voters register.”
“This won’t be as expensive as the mass registration that requires getting other hands on deck,” he added.
He also indicated that the Electoral Commission is working with Parliament to amend “the Constitutional Instrument to allow for the continuous registration with the Ghana card.”
According to him, the new constitutional instrument only seeks to amend the current laws governing elections in the country to enable it conduct the continuous registration of new voters and persons who could not register prior to the 2020 general elections.
Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament wants officials of the Electoral Commission to be summoned to brief Parliament next week to shed more light on the process to compile “a new voters’ register” with the Ghana Card as identification.