The Supreme Court has disallowed the use of the old Voters’ ID card for the upcoming Voters’ registration exercise.
In a ruling Thursday morning, the Seven Member Supreme Court panel granted the relief three of the suit which talks about the use of the old voters’ ID card for the upcoming voters’ compilation exercise subject to the prevailing C.I 126.
However, the prevailing C.I 126 prevents the use of the existing voters’ card as proof of identity in the compilation of the new register.
The parties involved in the suit were sharply divided over the Court’s direction.
The Court upon dismissing some of the reliefs sought by the NDC and Mark Takyi-Banson directed the EC to go ahead with the voter registration exercise as scheduled.
The Court also said the registration should be conducted in line with the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations 2012, C.I. 91 as amended as the newly passed Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2020 C.I. 126.
This left the parties involved divided over whether the Court upheld the use of the existing voter ID card as proof of identity for the purposes of registration or not.
Meanwhile, NDC general secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia has told the media the outcome is a vindication of their position.
“So we will get back to the office and we will address a full-blown press conference on the consequential matters arising. We feel vindicated because the court itself in an earlier ruling has clearly stated that the possession of an existing voters’ ID means that the holder is a citizen of Ghana who is qualified to be registered and to exercise his or her powers and so the court couldn’t go back on its own earlier ruling,” he said.
The opposition NDC argued that a new voter’s register will deprive many Ghanaians the right to vote in the polls if the existing voters’ ID card is rejected a claim the EC disagrees with.
The party has argued in its suit that the EC lacks the power to go ahead with its plans because it can only “compile a register of voters only once, and thereafter revise it periodically, as may be determined by law”.
