Founder of the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga has questioned the credibility of the new voters register even before the register is validated.
The Electoral Commission (EC) completed the voter registration on Sunday with the challenge and de-duplication processes still underway.
However, the Founder of APC, Mr. Ayariga who is the sole contender for the party’s flagbearer race insists that the eligibility proof which underpinned the just-ended registration undermined the very principle for the push to have a new register.
“I believe that the old register is more credible than the one that we are compiling. With the new register, the EC sent a new C.I. to Parliament to allow the EC to use the Ghana card, passport and then the vouching procedure to compile the register. As a Ghanaian living abroad, I know many people with Ghana passport but they are not Ghanaians. So where is the credibility?”
“I know people with the Ghana card who are also not Ghanaians. Also, to vouch for someone, you don’t need any legal document to do that. So anybody like a minor can walk in with two people and say he is 18 years because you cannot challenge it. I have seen it in many constituencies where foreigners and people who are less than 18 were being vouched for,” he added.
The Public Election (Amendment) regulation, 2020 (C.I. 126) amended C.I 91 changed the current identification requirements for registering to vote.
Aside from the National Identification Card (Ghana Card) or the Ghana passport being acceptable documents for registering onto the new voters’ register, two persons who have already been captured on the new register can vouch for others to register.
The registration exercise commenced after the Supreme Court cleared the Electoral Commission to go ahead and compile a new voters’ register for the 2020 general elections.
This development came about after a seven-member panel ruled that the existing voter ID card and birth certificates cannot be used as proof of identity to register.
Mr Ayariga is one of the conveners of the Inter-Party Resistance Against the New Voters’ Register, the group that opposed the compilation of the new electoral roll.
He has recorded in the past as describing the voter registration exercise as a fanfare that cannot guarantee a credible voter register for the upcoming December polls.
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I’m Deborah Aba Narkoah. I’m an avid reader, writer and public speaker.
