Although the Minority in Parliament wanted clarity on the Electoral Commission’s (EC) Constitutional Instrument seeking to make the Ghana Card the sole identification for the compilation of the voters’ register, a duty which the EC performed on Tuesday, the caucus still did not allow the presentation to end without the usual heckling.
The Chair of the EC, Jean Mensa’s presentation to the Committee of Whole in Parliament was not a smooth one. It was marred with scoffs, to the extent that the Speaker, Mr. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, had to call on a member to withdraw a word he had uttered.
It would be recalled that owing to the brouhaha surrounding the Electoral Commission’s attempt to make the Ghana Card the sole identification for the voter register through the laying of a Constitutional Instrument, Parliament invited the EC for a briefing to clear the haze surrounding the issue.
The EC who couldn’t honour the invitation the first time, and for that matter incurred the wrath of the Minority Caucus, as well as some Ghanaians, but the officials finally showed up in the House last Tuesday.
The uproar that greeted Jean Mensa’s entry into the Chamber was one that The Chronicle could not tell if its members were delighted to see her or not. But one can say that the Majority members were obviously relieved to have seen her in the Chamber, because her absent would have still been described as disrespect to the legislative arm of government, even though information indicated that she was out of the country, hence, her inability to honour the first invitation.
The Minority’s reaction could be seen to mean that they were probably happy about the fact that they had been able to drag her to the Chamber.
Before Madam Jean Mensa Adukwei entered the Chamber, the members of the House were commenting on a statement read by a member. One would have thought that based on the importance of the business the House was going to transact with her, they stopped the debate and listened to her, but that did not happen.
The debate on the statement continued for more than half an hour before the Speaker directed the House to constitute itself into the Committee of the Whole to enable them listen to what the EC Chair had to say about the C.I.
It is important to note that Madam Jean Mensa was not the only one who addressed in the House on Tuesday. The Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority, Prof. Kenneth Attafuah, and the Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, and briefed the House on their preparedness towards the elections.
Since the Ghana Card, which the EC is seeking to make the sole source for the voter registration card, is printed by the NIA, the NIA was made to brief the House on whether all eligible voters will have their cards to enable them register. The Finance Minister, on the other hand, was there to assure the House that there would be a budget to support the activities of the EC and the NIA.
At about 3:30-4:00pm, the EC Chair commenced her presentation to the House and had read a quarter of the statement before she was interrupted by some members from the Minority side. The Chronicle cannot tell exactly what the members were saying, all it heard was the Speaker asking Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, a member of the House, to withdraw the use of the word “shame”.
The member was initially reluctant to withdraw the word, contending that since he had not spoken into the microphone, it had not been captured as an official record of the House, and so there was nothing to withdraw. But, after some back and forth with the Speaker, he withdrew the word.
This nearly marred the beautiful presentation that was started by the EC Chair, but the Speaker was able to restore calm for the presentation to continue.
Why the Ghana Card must be used as the sole ID for voter registration
Addressing the House, the EC Chair noted, first of all, that making of the Ghana Card a sole source of identification for the voters register was a proposal. She said this proposal, when adopted, would help to deal with minors and foreigners who were able to register as voters through the guarantor system.
“The use of [the] Ghana Card as a sole means of identification will prevent foreigners and minors from getting onto our voters register.”
Madam Jean Mensa noted that during the 2020 elections, the Commission expunged 40,000 minors and foreigners from the voters register, indicating that these people got onto the register through the guarantor system. She described the system as not the best, and stressed the need to use the Ghana Card as the sole identification card for registration.
Significant feature of the C.I.
Another significant feature about the C.I., which Madam Jean Mensa spoke about, was the promotion of the continuous registration of voters and an all year round registration of eligible voters at the district offices of the EC.
“It is different from the previous system where the voters’ registration was done for a limited period,” the EC chair indicated to Parliament.
She said that the advantage of the C.I is that there will be continuous registration that will allow potential voters to register at any time.
Minority’s position
Despite the presentation, the Minority members say it will not support the CI until the NIA addresses issues with the acquisition of Ghana Cards.Addressing the Parliamentary Press Corps on Wednesday, the caucus said processes must be put in place to make the acquisition of Ghana Card less tedious.
“Using the Ghana card as the only means of voter registration will negatively impact the electoral roll and deny some otherwise qualified persons from registering to vote. We cannot take assurances as the basis. Let the NIA resolve the challenges with the issuance of the Ghana card first.”
The Majority’s reaction
Meanwhile, the Majority is claiming that the Minority lacks the authority to prevent the government from conducting business in the house.
“The Minority has given a strong indication that, if the issues they have raised are not attended to, they will oppose it and carry through with their opposition. I don’t know what he means by that.
We are trying to build a consensus, but the bottom line is that, nobody in this house can prevent a government from presenting its business to the house.”
