It noted that “if the Ghana Card is going to be the sole identi­ty then we have to ensure it is for all citizens and until that is done a number of people are going to be disenfranchised”.

The Centre said it did not think that was how the nation’s democracy was all about because already, there were people who were not represented in Parliament and everybody was going about their business as if it was okay

Dr Rashid Draman,the Executive Director of ACEPA, commenting on development in Parliament, expressed worry on the conduct of the Chairperson of EC, Jean Mensa,over her difficulty in making herself available for Parliament.

This comes on the back of Parliament asking officials of the Commission and the National Identification Authority (NIA) over the absence of Mrs Mensa after officials of the EC and the NIA had been summoned to brief Members of Parliament (MPs) on a new Constitutional Instrument (CI) seeking to make the Ghana Card the only proof of nationality for voter registration.

The CI is also seeking to scrap the guarantor system and limit continuous registration to district offices of the EC.

According to Dr Draman, ”what should happen is, if I were Members of Parliament (MP) I will kick against the sole use of the Ghana Card because we are even in Accra, go out and say you want Ghana Card and see how difficult it is.

“This whole issue of Ghana Card and the role that it is going to play in our elections and if you put all these together. I think it is important the Chairperson of the EC avails herself before MPs and I do not know what the problem is thatshe cannot show up before the House.

“In this Republic as well as in any democracy when Parliament calls no one has an excuse but you can postpone, you can re­schedule but to ignore Parliament I think it is quite disturbing,” Dr Draman decried.

He backed the Minority in Parliament’s stance over the new Electoral CI aimed at using only the Ghana Card for voter regis­tration in the country