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The Electoral Commission employs a lot of people who are dedicated to making government more transparent and accessible in the area of elections, political campaigning, legislative advocacy, and historical election data management.
As parliament considers the current proposals by Electoral Commission, it is an honour to ensure transparency and fairness in government.
It is our job as Members of Parliament to bring people reliable information, keep accurate and complete records for posterity to examine. We strive to guarantee people the relief, hope and honesty they are entitled to by our society and to the voter seeking to exercise their individual power. To this we have to work hard to bring about an agreement to better serve the people of Ghana.
We have to foster trust in democracy, share our heritage, promote economic growth, and invest in the future. All this must be done as we adhere to the highest standard of integrity and transparency, and activities to strengthen democracy and protect individual rights.
Incorporating an advanced technology for individual identification as seen in the National Identification Authority is appropriate. Many have seen the enormous benefit of having this top-notch technology for identification and verification of any particular individual in the country.
The core values needed are integrity, trust, innovation, superior service, empowerment of public with information, collaboration and mutual respect. This time information technology is being used to improve our election process right from the registration to the day the vote is cast. This proposal if passed will be making a huge reform to the nation’s voting process.
It will be a more uniform, centralized, interactive and computerized voter registration database that can be well-defined, maintained, and administered at the national level. The national identification system is tested, reviewed, and verified as a very good database. Ultimately, this will make it very difficult for election results to be contested considering the efforts being put into the registration process.
Overall, this will ensure that citizens have full access to the most convenient and accessible voting options so all citizens can exercise their great privilege to vote in a safe and secure environment. We need to make an extraordinary effort to promote civic engagement and outreach and educate all Ghanaians on the importance of registering and voting.
This will also promote participation in the electoral process and expand access to electoral information. We all have to ensure laws and requirements are enforced nationwide and citizens are educated about their voting rights, and promote voter registration and participation.
The District Assembly Elections will cost close to 500, Million Ghana Cedis in 2023. Some changes in the training programs, number of days for registration, exhibition of voter register etc will be done to reduce cost to about 200, Million Ghana Cedis.
It is important that we get our institutions running and to be more progressive and effective. The legislative and constitutional instruments are all making electoral commission’s work more visible and clear and will eventually improve the delivery of its service to the ordinary Ghanaian.
All this effort is to promote transparency and eventually reduce the chance of contesting the results of the election when held. In fact the notary public section within the process of getting a Ghana Card has been very valuable to the legal, business, financial and other sectors like housing and real estate. As of today many banking institutions and financial institutions rely heavily on the Ecowas Card. In simple terms One Man, One Woman, One Ghana Card, One Vote.
The author, Dr. Adomako Kissi is a Member of Parliament for the Anyaa Sowutuom constituency.
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