The use of the Ghana Card as the sole identification for elections in the future will eliminate the confrontations observed during the recent voter transfer exercise, the Electoral Commission has said.
Jean Mensa, Chairperson of the Commission, expressed optimism that Parliament will realise the need to approve legislation making the Ghana Card the sole condition for registering to vote.
She stated this in an interview with journalists after the electoral commission worked with over 50 civil society organisations to ensure peaceful polls in the next presidential and legislative elections.
She praised the CSOs for their contribution to the engagement.
The EC Chair highlighted the need of Parliament recognising the Ghana Card as the sole criterion in future elections in order to avoid the disagreements that occurred during the recently concluded vote transfer exercise.
”We have just concluded as I mentioned the transfer of votes exercise and it also went very well. We did observe some unrest and conflicts in some of the centres. Thankfully no lives were lost, and we do hope that the conflicts around the guarantor system which lead to parties challenging their opponents because they come to the stations, they bus the people to the station and come using the guarantor system.”
”We hope that in the future parliament will be in agreement with the EC’s proposal to make the Ghana card the sole document identification card but that will be after 2024.”
On his part, Albert Kofi Arhin, National Coordinator of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), advised the Electoral Commission to intensify the promotion of peace ahead of the elections, citing high tensions and desperation among the populace.
“If the EC has now opened its doors to everybody, especially with the CSOs, we are going to tell the story together with the EC and we would have to educate the people. I have a feeling that we need to be very careful this year because of the nature of the election that we are going to have.”
“Why because tensions are very high, the economic situation in the country sometimes is dicey, and people are desperate, so we need to educate the people about peace.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
