CI 91 comes into force
Parliament last Thursday passed the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2016, also known as Constitutional Instrument 91 (CI 91).
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With the coming into force of the CI, a law is thereby enacted for the registration of voters to address some of the anomalies that occurred during the registration for the 2012 general election and revokes the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2012 (CI 72).
Background
Article 51 of the 1992 Constitution provides that the Electoral Commission (EC) shall, by constitutional instrument, make regulations for the effective performance of its functions under the Constitution or any other law, and in particular for the registration of voters, the conduct of public elections and referenda, including provision for voting by proxy.
Section two of the EC Act, 1993 (Act 451), also provides that the functions of the EC, as stipulated by Article 45 of the Constitution, are to compile the register of voters and revise the register at the periods determined by law.
Pursuant to the aforementioned constitutional provision and Act 451, the EC is mandated to make regulations for the registration of voters, among other obligations.
In the matter of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey versus John Dramani Mahama, the Electoral Commission and the National Democratic Congress, 2013, the Supreme Court held, among other things, that the EC, together with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee, proffer some proposals.
The reform committee subsequently met and proposed some recommendations which were accepted by the EC.
Contributions
The Ranking Member of the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation, Mr Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, reminded the public that the new CI had put in place stiff punishment for people who engaged non-Ghanaians to register and said anyone found to have engaged in any such action would have himself or herself to blame.
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He said all foreigners needed to know that CI 91 was a different legislation that would punish infiltrators onto the country's voters register.
The member for Takoradi, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko, said the law must descend heavily on people who perpetrated fraud or engaged others to perpetrate fraud with regard to registration exercises.
The member for Keta, Mr Richard Quarshigah, said there were Ghanaians living across the various borders and added that such people were citizens of the land.
He said the impression should, therefore, not be given that anyone who came across the frontiers to register was a foreigner.