The Electoral Commission (EC) has stated that excluding the existing voter’s identification card as proof of qualification for the new registration will give the new register more credibility.
According to the EC, the compilation of the new register should not admit the existing voter s’ identification card because it does not satisfy the constitutional test of proving qualification.
This is contained in a Statement of Case the EC has submitted to the Supreme Court on 8th June 2020 in defense of a suit against the compilation of a register.
The Supreme Court on Thursday 4th June 2020 directed the EC to file a supplementary Statement of Case to offer legal bases for not allowing the existing voter identification card to be used for the upcoming compilation of the new register.
In its defense, the Commission established that there are three Voters ID Cards obtained under three different Constitutional Instruments namely; C.l 12, C.l 72, and C.l. 91.
All three, it said, should not be included in the intended voters’ registration exercise as a matter of law.
The Commission indicated that the first legal basis for its course of action is that it has the sole exclusive constitutional responsibility to compile a voters’ register and to determine how that compilation will be effected.
“And it is not subject to the direction or control of any other person or body as provided for in Article 45(a) and Article 46 of the Constitution and as enunciated by Abu Ramadan & Anor (No.2) v EC & AG (No. 2) [2015-2016] 1 SCGLR 1.”
The second legal basis advanced by the EC is that in exercising its exclusive constitutional duty it has placed before Parliament a Constitutional Instrument that does not include the use of the existing or old voters ID Cards, exercising its constitutional discretion to do so.
The EC stressed that the exclusion of previous or old voters ID Cards, quite apart from being unconstitutionally permissible and lawful, will not in any way disenfranchise any prospective registrants.
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Frontpageghana.com/Ghana/Uthman A. Marani
