Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has described as problematic the Electoral Commission’s decision to use only passports and Ghana Card as required means of identification for the compilation of the voters’ register.
The Electoral Commission has reiterated its position that the existing Voter’s ID cards and birth certificates will not be accepted as proof of identity during the registration exercise.
According to the Commission, any decision to use the old ID card could be likened to migrating illegalities existing in the old register unto the new register.
But the National Democratic Congress has strongly opposed the EC’s decision to use the Ghana Card and passport as the only acceptable identification because they believe it will disenfranchise lots of people.
Speaking in an interview monitored by ABC News, Kwesi Pratt said it will be a huge problem if citizens are only defined by owning a passport or Ghana Card.
According to him, the law stipulates how a person is recognised as a citizen of a country so using a different method to vouch for that person’s citizenship will create a problem.
He explained that it will be worrisome because most Ghanaians do not have passports and a lot of them were unable to register for the Ghana Card, stressing that more people would be left out if a person with the required IDs can vouch for only 10 people.
“In the law, the definition of citizenship is derived from our parents and grandparents; they vouch for our citizenship according to the law. Now if we use this method we are turning that law upside down…But what bothers me most is the number of people who do not have the required IDs. How many people in Ghana have the Ghana Card? Just a few people.”
“If the basic documents are a passport and Ghana Card and also certification by a citizen, where a citizen is now defined as somebody with a national ID card and passport, that is a problem…there’s a real problem. It bothers me a lot that now citizenship would be defined in a manner that does not correspond with the law. It worries me a lot,” he averred.
Source: abcnewsgh
