The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has lauded the plans by the Electoral Commission (EC) to abolish guarantor system in the continuous registration exercise.
The EC announced that it will no longer use the guarantor system in the continuous voter registration exercises and as a result, the only source of document for the registration will be the Ghana Card.
Expressing the NPP’s support for the decisions taken by the EC, the Director of election Evans Nimako said, he does not see why there should be opposition to the proposal by the electoral commission.
“I don’t know why you must have an issue with this arrangement to ensure that we have a register that captures those who must be on it. We think that the EC is on the right path”, says Director of Elections for the NPP, Evans Nimako.
In his view, the decision by the EC only seeks to bring a solution to the perennial issues of misunderstandings that characterize voter registrations.
“For us at the NPP, this issue has been discussed at the IPAC level. We have no problem with the continuous registration arrangements being put in place by the EC. We believe such arrangements have the answer to the use of the national identification card. We should brace it and work with it because the use of the guarantor system has been contentious”, he said.
However, some political parties have raised such as CPP questions about the decision as some believe it will disenfranchise people who don’t have access to the Ghana card.
“This proposal must be done in a proper, systematic manner so that people are not disenfranchised. As CPP, we think that in as much as they want to work with the Ghana card, it must be clear that there are a lot of challenges. The systems of EC and NIA should be harmonized so that we are able to get a good job done.”
The National Democratic Congress have also raised similar questions about the decision calling is an attempt to disenfranchise eligible Ghanaians from registering for the voter card.
The Electoral Commission announced sweeping reforms in their ‘Let the Citizens know’ press engagement.
They also used the opportunity to debunk rumors of the Commission using the Ghana card for the upcoming 2024 election.
Source: theGhanaianvoice.com
