We won’t disenfranchise Ghanaians, says EC

The Electoral Commission (EC) Ghana has debunked assertions that the proposed elimination of the guarantor policy in Ghana’s electoral system will disenfranchise millions of Ghanaians.

The EC chairperson Jean Mensa on Tuesday told Parliament the guarantor system, where an individual can guarantee the citizenship of a person so he or she can acquire a voter’s ID card for the purpose of election will be no more when the new Constitutional Instrument (CI) is passed.

But the Minority Caucus disagrees. It said the proposed CI, which will eliminate the guarantor system is a deliberate attempt by the election management body to disenfranchise millions of Ghanaians.

Reacting to the development on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Thursday (2 March), the deputy chairman of the EC in charge of corporate services, Dr Bossman Asare, said the guarantor system is being phased out as a result of advancement in the electoral process.

“In 2021, we had a discussion with our stakeholders including political parties and civil society organisations,” Asare said. “One of the central decisions that came out was that with the advances Ghana has made and especially with registration of Ghanaians through the NIA system, it was now appropriate for any Ghanaian, who wanted to register as a voter to do so on his own merit.”

“In other words, there’s no need for someone to vouch for another person,” he added.