Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, has given an assurance that an NDC government will make it natural for the Electoral Commission (EC) to register all qualified Ghana citizens and issue them with Voter Id cards.
This, he said, would be done within the 100 days of coming into power.
According to him, the NDC intends to do that by deploying acceptable electronic technology, which would work into the future of electronic voting for Ghana.
Mr Iddrisu gave the assurance when he briefed the press in Parliament House after the House had voted to accept the Report of the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation on the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) (Amendment) Regulations, 2020 (C.I 126).
The House, moments earlier, by a division, which was won by 106 to 92, adopted a motion to accept CI 126 introduced by the EC to proscribe the use of the Ghanaian Birth Certificate and the Ghanaian Voter ID Card current as valid documents to be used for the registration of a new Voter Id for the 2020 general polls.
Mr Iddrisu maintained that the NDC was persuaded to stand by the Ghanaian public, whose right to vote has remained entrenched and guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution.
He said many Ghanaians in the future would appreciate the principled position taken by the party as political opposition and Minority against the EC’s exclusion of the birth certificate and voter’s identity card.
“Many of you, going forward and into the future, would appreciate the principled position we have taken as political opposition and political minority, wary of our numbers, it is not a vote we could win or easily win, but we are persuaded to stand by the Ghanaian public whose right to vote, remain entrenched and guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution,” he added.
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader reacting to the Minority’s press conference, explained the various processes from the time the report was laid last Friday in Parliament till the debate issues and the final voting by Majority 106 to Minority 92.
He accused the Minority NDC caucus of shifting the goalposts on the issues of the electoral register from insufficient budget allocation to the EC, and now to the birth certificate.
He went down memory lane that in 1992, and noted that when the first voter's register was being compiled, the birth certificate was never used, so was the 1995 and 2012 re-registration exercise.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu also explained that the remit of the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation was defined by Standing Order 166 and their task was to prove whether the CI brought by the EC infringes any constitutional law.
He said the EC officials made it known to the Committee when they debated the estimates of the EC’s budget in December that they were going to compile a new voter’s register and that they would not use the birth certificate.
Source: GNA
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THAT MEANS THE NDC ON THEIR OWN REGISTERED THEIR SO CALLED QUALIFIED GHANAIANS DURING THE 2012 GENERAL REGISTRATION. I HAVE UNDERSTOOD THE REASON WHY NDC DON'T WANT NEW VOTERS REGISTER.
Haruna you see you have revealed the secret of the NDC. We've been saying that the NDC always win elections with foreigners. Who are the qualify Ghanaians who can not be registered for the upcoming registration? Because the borders are closed and the old voters ID is not going to be accepted, your so call qualify Ghanaians cannot be registered. No wonder the thousands of Zaminamas living in Bole always participate in all our elections. I hope Ghanaians have now seen why the NDC is making so much noise about the compilation of the new register.
OH my learned colleague are you specking law of your wish, you know is not possible and it won;t happen so stop deceiving your people
I’ve never supported a new register but I think by this statement I am fully in support of a new one. So these guys know what is really in the current register? So NDC registered what they called ‘qualified Ghanaians’ and not the EC? I see. I now believe there are things in the current register. Come June 29th I will sleep at the registration center and register the following day.
Mr Haruna is telling us that NDC would force their will on the E.C. He has lost the trust of many Ghanaians forever.
but every qualified Ghanaian voter can register come 30th June 2020 so what is he talking about
Concert Party j0ker
THANK YOU GOOD PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR SUPPORTING TO MOVE GHANA FORWARD. THIS IS GOOD FOR GHANA. WE NEED TO LIVE AND FUNCTION IN A WAY THAT CORRESPONDS TO THE BEST PRACTICES OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORLD. WE ARE NOT YET THERE AS WE SHALL STILL ACCEPT THE WITNESS OF TWO PERSONS. THE WORLD IS CHANGING AND MOVING FORWARD. GHANA CANNOT STAY BEHIND, ESPECIALLY WHEN WE PRIDE OURSELVES AS THE BRIGHT STAR OF AFRICA. IN ADVANCED WORLD CITIZENS HAVE ONE GOOD COMMON IDENTIFICATION ACCEPTED AS BASIC FOR ALL TRANSACTIONS. WE MUST KEEP WORKING ON GHANA CARD TO BEAT THE TRICK OF ANY FRAUDSTERRR. NO TRUE GHANAIAN, WELL INFORMED AND PROGRESSIVE WOULD FAIL TO SUPPORT THIS EFFORT TO PROTECT THE IDENTITY OF ALL GENUINE CITIZENS. IDENTIFICATION OF CITIZENS IS NOT A RACE OF NUMBERS BUT THE ABILITY TO SECURE THE QUALITY OF THE IDENTIFICATION.
Then that will be the year 5000
and who says you are going to win power. you guys have decided to boycott the new voters registration and you have even gone ahead to tell your supporters not to register and I believe you will not put up candidates in various constituencies. so how can you win power.