'Ghana card surest way to ensure voter roll integrity' – Jean Mensa

The use of the Ghana card as the source document for registering voters is the best way to ensure the register of voters is rid of mi ors and foreigners so as to vouch for its integrity, Electoral Commission chairperson Jean Mensa has said on Thursday, 17 August 2023.

The constitutional instrument to make the Ghana card the sole registration document is currently before parliament.

Addressing journalists at a briefing dubbed, 'Let the Citizens Know', Mrs Mensa said: "With regard to the C.I. that is before parliament, we do not intend to put back the guarantor system because we do not believe that the guarantor system has worked for us".

She argued: 'Thirty years ago when we took this journey, and we did not have a Ghana Card, it was only proper that we adopt a system that would ensure that people who didn’t have any documentation could register and thirty years on, we now have the Ghana Card, and we must rely on it, and it is the surest way to ensure the integrity of our register".

She said the C.I. is motivated by nothing except the EC quest to "conduct credible, transparent, fair and peaceful elections".

'As a Commission that is determined to conduct credible, transparent, fair and peaceful elections, we were keen to establish and uphold the integrity of the foundational document which is the voters’ register, hence our proposal to use the Ghana Card as the sole document for identification of a person’s citizenship and or age".

She pointed out that the guarantor system is defective and not fail-safe.

"Our experience with the 2020 registration exercise showed that several minors and foreigners using the window of the guarantor system found their way onto our roll.

"To rid the register of minors and foreigners in 2020, the Electoral Commission established the District Registration Review Committees (DRRCS) which worked for several weeks to delete the names of minors and foreigners from the register".

'It took substantial time and effort to expunge the names of illegal persons from our roll. We challenged some 40,000 minors and foreigners and expunged some 15,000 persons from the Register".