Report by Nsor Paul Mensah.
Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), has announced significant strides in rectifying the voters’ register by eliminating 15,000 names belonging to minors and non-citizens. This revelation came during a press conference titled ‘Let the Citizen Know,’ held in Accra on Thursday, August 17th 2023
Addressing the matter, Ms. Mensa acknowledged that the 2020 registration process had exposed instances where minors and foreigners were able to infiltrate the voters’ roll through the guarantor system.
To tackle this issue, the EC established District Registration Review Committees, which diligently worked for several weeks to identify and expel ineligible names from the register.
“Our experience from the 2020 registration process revealed that a number of minors and foreigners managed to enter our roll through the guarantor system. To rectify this in 2020, the EC instituted District Registration Review Committees, which labored for weeks to remove these ineligible names from the register.”
“Eliminating the names of unauthorized individuals from our roll demanded considerable time and effort. Throughout the registration, approximately 40,000 instances of minors and foreigners were flagged, leading to the removal of around 15,000 such names,” she conveyed.
Ms. Mensa emphasized that the EC’s plan to adopt the Ghana Card as the exclusive document for voter registration is not intended to disenfranchise Ghanaian citizens. Instead, it is a strategic maneuver to enhance the credibility of the electoral roll and prevent the recurrence of such occurrences.
She clarified that the Commission has decided to discontinue the guarantor system, as it has ceased to be effective, hence the choice to embrace the Ghana Card as the singular identification document for voting.