Continuous registration will cure fear of disenfranchisement – Sylvester Tetteh

The Member of Parliament for Bortianor-Ngleshie Amanfro Constituency, Sylvester Tetteh has reiterated that there will not be a new voters’ registration but rather a continuous one for newly qualified voters.

According to him, the registration would ensure that no citizen will be disenfranchised.

“We’re not going to do a fresh registration to say that we’ll have a problem. We are going to do a continuous registration. And this continuous registration will cure the fear of being disenfranchised if you turn 18,” he said.

His comments come after the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), JeanMensa explained in Parliament that the voter registration process is going to be made continuous and as easy as possible in order not to deny citizens the right to vote.

Mrs Mensa has also debunked claims that the Ghana Card will be used to vote, saying that the card is just a required document in the registration process of qualified voters if the new constitutional instrument is adopted.

Mr. Tetteh added that the approach will help resolve issues of doubt and clear allegations of malpractices by the EC.

The EC’s resort to making the Ghana Card the sole ID required for registering voters has come under intense scrutiny as many believe that the approach seeks to disenfranchise qualified voters.

However, the electoral body has explained that the approach is meant to prevent issues of duplication of identity and non – Ghanaian nationals participating in the election, coupled with the assertion that the guarantor system of the Ghana Card is more robust compared to that of the Voter ID.

Meanwhile, the National Identification Authority (NIA) has disclosed that a majority of people have received their Ghana Cards and that the rest will receive theirs in about 6 months.

The body admitted that it was unable to provide citizens with the Card in due time as a result of some financial challenges.

The government has since been advised to resource the institution adequately in order to complete the issuance of the document before the election period.