‘We’ll hand over guarantor contractors to security agencies’ - EC

Samuel Tettey, a Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations at the Electoral Commission (EC) has warned that persons who are found to be acting as ‘Guarantor Contractors’ will be handed over to the security agencies.

Such an act, according to him, was illegal under the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 91 and that such persons would face the law.

Mr Tettey explained that “the CI 91 states that a registered voter who is the applicant’s parent, sibling, spouse, guardian and other are the only persons who can serve as a guarantor since the law specifies that an applicant must be well known to the guarantor and that anything contrary to that constitutes an electoral offence punishable by law.

“According to the CI 91, it is an offence to make an entry of statement, which that person knows to be false or does not believe to be true for registering a voter, under the guarantor window, the individual vouching is required to swear an oath affirming that he or she knows the applicant, is qualified to register as a voter at that registration centre.

“People who commit such an offence are liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than 500 penalty units or a term of imprisonment of not more than two years or both,” and reiterated that “the collection of cards of registered applicants and writing of contact details at the back of the voter’s identity cards are unlawful acts.”

Mr Tettey cautioned agents of political parties at the registration centres to stop the collection of the voters ID cards of applicants with the view to taking details from the cards and reminded applicants not to give out their contacts to political party agents or any official of the commission.