Minorities are fighting the new ECCI in parliament, demanding that the backlog of Ghana Cards be cleared.
The minority is expected to submit a petition to parliament to halt the presentation of proposed Public Elections (Registration of Voters) instrument (C.I) until the backlog of Ghana Cards, which the National Identification Authority has admitted is cleared.
On today’s Order Paper, the petition was listed to be presented by the minority Leader to the house.
Its states;
"Because the proposed Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Instrument (C.1), as subsidiary legislation, cannot override the substantive provision in the Constitution on citizens' right to register and vote, and because insisting on the Ghana Card as the only form of evidence of citizenship will deny millions of citizens the right to register and vote, other forms of evidence of citizenship, such as Ghanaian passports and the guarantor system, must be added to the Ghana Card as alternatives."
"Any further action on the proposed C.I. by or in Parliament should be halted until consultations with the major stakeholders, particularly political parties, including the NDC, and civil society, have been initiated and concluded," the petition added.
Last Friday, the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin stated that he is yet to receive a brief on the new constitutional instrument (CI).
According to him, should the Electoral Commission fail to meet the leader of the house, then they should forget about the laying the CI before the house.
“…I have not been given any brief by the EC on any proposed instrument coming from them. And so I raised this sometime ago, I’m yet to receive them to be briefed on them. Until that is done, they should forget about laying such Instruments in the House,” he said.
The Electoral Commission announced a few months ago the proposed Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations 2021 Constitutional Instrument, which seeks to make the Ghana Card the only proof of nationality for its impending limited registration.
This comes after the minority expressed concern about the business committee's failure to schedule the EC and NIA reports for Thursday.
He stated that after the meeting with the EC three months ago, the Committee was required to present a report to the House.
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