The Electoral Commission (EC) has targeted to register about 1.35 million people in the 2023 Voters’ Registration exercise which commences today September 12 to October 2 in spite of a pending interlocutory injunction filed at the Supreme Court by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and four other minority parties.
This is based on the EC’s projection that at least 1,350,000 persons might have attained 18 years since the last registration exercise in 2020.
The nationwide exercise will be conducted between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily, including Saturdays and Sundays.
The EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, indicated that at the time of the last registration exercise in 2020, the National Identification Authority (NIA) had registered over 10 million persons.
“Indeed, some 10 million plus persons used the Ghana Card as proof of citizenship during the 2020 elections,” she said.
She stated that, “the NIA has on its roll close to 18 million registrants; that is eight million more persons since the 2020 Voters’ Registration exercise.”
“Per the 2021 census figures, 450,000 Ghanaians attain the age of 18 every year, and therefore qualify to be registered to vote.
“The point we seek to make is that it is highly likely that most, if not all of these 1,350,000 persons, already have the Ghana Card,” Mrs Mensa argued.
The EC chairperson said the commission did not “believe that upholding the L.I. 2111 and enforcing the use of the Ghana Card to prove a person’s citizenship would disenfranchise citizens as was being alleged by sections of our society.
While awaiting the outcome of the substantive issue, the five political parties had earlier requested an interlocutory injunction from the Supreme Court to stop the EC from carrying out the limited voter registration drive.
The parties: the NDC, Convention People’s Party (CPP), All People’s Congress (APC), Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) and the Great Consolidated People’s Party (GCPP) were of the view that limiting the exercise to the EC’s district offices would not be suitable and accessible to every Ghanaian who is desirous of exercising his or her constitutional right to be registered as a voter.
As part of their requests for relief, the parties requested that the Supreme Court rule that, upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 42 and 45(a) and (e) of the 1992 Constitution, as well as Regulation 2 sub-regulation 2(a) and (b), and Regulation 30(1) of the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations 2016 (C.I. 91) (as amended by C.I. 126), the EC shall designate registration centers that are suitable and accessible to every.
They also asked the Court to declare that upon a true and proper interpretation of the above provisions, the EC’s decision to undertake the limited voter registration at its district offices would result in voter suppression, hence it was unconstitutional since it would violate first-time voters’ right to vote.
