The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has cancelled plans requiring the Ghana Card as the only identity credential allowed for voter registration.
This decision was reached at an Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting held in Accra and presided over by EC Chairperson Jean Mensa.
With this, a Constitutional Instrument (CI) that sought to introduce new rules to how potential voters would identify themselves during voter registration for the December 7 general elections will no longer be necessary.
The EC tried to replace the CI which allows the use of passports and a guarantor system for voter registration, arguing that the guarantor system was outdated and unable to establish a credible and reliable voter registration database.
The move was however met with several roadblocks, as the main opposition party accused the electoral body of using the reform as a political tool to favour the ruling party.
The decision was also opposed in the parliament by some MPs who vowed to stand against it. They insisted that making the Ghana Card the only identification document for voter registration would exclude many potential voters.
They had also criticised the move, citing the ordeal faced by many citizens in obtaining the national digital ID card.
According to Ghana National Identification Authority, only about 17.8 million Ghanaians have registered for their Ghana Card and under 17.1 million have collected it. The country’s population is estimated at close to 34 million.
The EC also agreed to proposals to maintain the use of indelible ink used for manual fingerprinting as an alternative for biometric voter verification.
Early this year, the opposition had raised concerns over a mooted plan by the EC to replace manual fingerprinting with electronic biometric verification.