Professor Ransford Gyampo, a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, has urged the Electoral Commission (EC) to start a national conversation to help forge agreement on the suggested use of the Ghana card as the only source document for voter registration in the nation.
All parties interested in the nation's election campaign, including political parties, should be members of the consensus, which, according to him, must be real and genuine.
According to Prof. Gyampo, the mandate of state institutions like the EC required them to win over all stakeholders in order to forge a consensus, which is why there needed to be a national conversation.
Dialogue
On the back of the Constitutional Instrument (CI) that proposed using the Ghana card as the only document for voter registration, the political science instructor was giving an interview to the Daily Graphic.
The decision to make the Ghana card the only source document for voter registration is a problem that affects them and, for example, renders the mission of state institutions useless if they do not receive the buy-in of all stakeholders, the official added.
He emphasized that in order to bring about resolution of the issue, the participants in the discourse must avoid adopting fixed viewpoints.
Republican gains
Prof. Gyampo said that in order to consolidate the nation's democratic accomplishments, Ghanaians must stand their ground. Prof. Gyampo warned that the next general election might be chaotic if there is no national agreement on using the Ghana card as the exclusive form of voter registration.
Background
The EC plans to replace the current C.I. with a new C.I. that mandates the Ghana card as the only acceptable form of identification for determining whether a citizen of Ghana is eligible to register or be registered on the voter's register or not.
The EC's plan has been faced with significant opposition due to the hung parliament, with the minority side opposing it and the majority side supporting it.
Parliament
Last Thursday, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, gave the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensah, the order to personally come before the Committee of the Whole of Parliament today to update members on the new C.I.
During a meeting of the Committee of the Whole with representatives of the EC and the National Identity Authority, the Speaker gave the order (NIA).
In the meantime, a statement made and signed by Kate Addo, Head of Public Affairs for Parliament, claimed that no C.I.
"In any case, constitutional instruments are not passed by Parliament," it stated. Only after the passage of time, or 21 days after the instrument is brought before the House, can it become effective.
The activity, according to the statement, was to have pre-presentation talks on the Constitutional Instrument (CI) on February 23, 2023, in order to gather feedback from pertinent sources for its development.
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