C.I. 91 and offences you need to know
The nationwide limited biometric voter registration exercise which begins on Thursday, April 28 and ends on Sunday, May 8, 2016, under the auspices of the Electoral Commission (EC) will register first time voters for the 2016 election.
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The exercise will allow individuals who have attained the voting age of 18 and those whose names are not in the current register the opportunity to register and exercise their voting rights in future elections.
However, the Constitutional Instrument 91 (C.I. 91) on Public Election Regulation 2016 governing this year’s elections has explicitly put in place stiff punishment for registration offenders, including people who engage non-Ghanaians and minors to register.
According to the CI, a registration offender is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than 500 penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than two years or to both.
Registration centres and polling stations also remain restricted and are security areas with media houses expected to have accreditation to access such areas.
Journalists who will cover the elections are also reminded that they are only observers and not monitors and that they do not have the power to instruct electoral officials but can only draw their attention to any abnormalities.
20 Registration offences
Indeed, the CI has identified about 20 registration offences and as the national exercise commences, it will not be out of place to share highlights of what the offences are.
From the perspective of the CI, a person commits an offence when he/she registers as a voter when that person does not qualify to be registered; registers as a voter more than once either at the same registration centre or at different registration centres; registers as a voter in the name of another person; by force or threat of use of physical or spiritual force, prevents a person from exercising the right to register as a voter as well as knowingly presents or gives false information in the application or claim of that person for registration, or in connection with the application or claim of another person for registration.
Other instances of electoral offence occur when anyone forges, wilfully defaces or destroys any official notice, paper, document, equipment, instrument and any other material relating to the registration of voters; delivers to any official connected with the registration of voters any paper or other document in connection with the registration of voters which that person knows to be false; challenges or objects to the inclusion of the name of another person in the register of voters on a ground that that person knows to be false; or gives a voters registration form to another person when that person is not a registration officer.
The CI also frowns on persons without authorisation from the Commission giving a form relating to the registration of voters to another person; printing any form relating to the registration of voters without authorisation; disrupting proceedings at a registration centre or in any way interfering with the work of an official connected with registration of voters; and offering anything of actual or potential value to a person to induce that person not to register as a voter.
Furthermore, a person commits an electoral offence when he/she makes an entry or a statement which that person knows to be false or does not believe to be true for the purpose of registering a voter; carries out registration of voters at a place other than a place designated as a registration centre by the Commission; tampers with any registration equipment; alters captured registration data without authorisation; transfers biometric information to another device without authorisation; wilfully refuses to provide an electoral form when required; intentionally brings to a registration centre or any data centre of the Commission an electronic device that interferes with the performance of the registration equipment; or procures a person to commit any of the offences under this regulation.
Qualification/Requirements for registration
Beyond these registration offences, the CI has also spelt out qualification and requirements for registration. These include the fact that a person is entitled to have his or her name included in the register of voters of an electoral area, if that person is a citizen of Ghana; eighteen years of age or above; of sound mind; resident or ordinarily resident in an electoral area; and not prohibited by any law in force from registering as a voter.
A person who is confined in a penal institution located in an electoral area is resident in that electoral area and so can register there.
In all of this qualification, a person who applies for registration as a voter shall also provide as evidence of identification one of the following: a passport; a driver's licence; a national identification card; an existing voter identification card; or one voter registration identification guarantee form as set out in Form One of the Schedule that has been completed and signed by two registered voters.
Low publicity
Despite the generally low publicity on the registration exercise, all stakeholders must make the exercise a success.
Already, the flag bearer of the ruling National Democratic Congress, President John Dramani Mahama, and that of the dominant opposition party, the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, have added their voices to the call to eligible Ghanaians to register.
On his official Twitter account, Nana Akufo-Addo asked his followers, “Please spread the word about the registration exercise and register.” He tweeted on Sunday, April 24.
This follows that of President Mahama, who is spotted in an advertisement by the NDC, persuading young eligible Ghanaians to register.
Voter exhibition
Once the limited voter registration exercise is done, attention will now be focused on how to make the voter register clean, credible and accurate.
Cleaning of the voters register of the invalid record is a collective responsibility.
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Often, people complain that the voters register is bloated but they don’t come forward to volunteer information.
It is the duty of all Ghanaians, particularly political parties and other stakeholders, to enhance inclusiveness in Ghana’s electoral process by trusting the EC in its bid to bring back the confidence in the electoral system. The EC itself must be much more transparent in its dealings to attract all the support.
Email: kobasmah@gmail.com