According to him, the actual plan of the EC is that it wants to create a new voters’ register through the draft C.I. it has tabled in Parliament, which requires only the Ghana Card for the registration of prospective voters.
In an XYZ interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Afriyie Ankrah added that after the draft Constitution Instrument (C.I.) for the 2024 election is passed, the EC will then file a suit in the Supreme Court that will allow them to remove the names of all the people who used documents other than the Ghana Card to register for the 2020 elections.
"The EC created an offside trap (a dangerous trap in the C.I) but we have caught them. If you read section 33 which talks about revocation and savings, it reads, “1. C.I. 91 is thereby revoked. 2. C.I. 126 is thereby revoked. Despite the revocations of 1 and 2, the existing voters’ register is safe under these regulations until a new one is created by the commission”.
"The two deputy commissioners have been saying that the new C.I. is for continuous registration, but per this draft C.I., if it is approved the C.I. 91 will be thrown out. The C.I. 126, which was used for the 2020 election, will also be thrown out. What this means is that if this draft C.I. is approved it will be the law governing the next election.
"The draft C.I. makes the Ghana Card the only document needed to register a voter, so what they will do is that they (the EC) will go to court based on the Abu Ramadan case and say that the law only allows persons with Ghana Card to be on the voters’ register. And so, all persons who used a different card to register for the 2020 election will have to register again with their Ghana Card,” he said in Twi.
He added that given the current posture of the Supreme Court of Ghana, it is likely that they will rule in favour of the EC, which means that every person who did not use the Ghana Card to register for the 2020 election will have to register again.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Chairman in charge of Corporate Services at the EC, Dr. Bossman Asare, clarified that the commission was not going to create a new register, contrary to assertions in the public.
He said that the draft C.I. the EC has come up with, which will require that prospective voters must have a Ghana Card before being registered, is for continuous registration of Ghanaians who are not already on the voters’ register that was used for the 2020 election.
“This means that those who had the chance to register in 2020 will not be registered again but those who are now coming to acquire (a) voter ID card will have to provide their card to show they are Ghanaians and have attained 18 since the Ghana card has a date of birth on it,’’ he said in an interview on Adom TV.
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