Some of the disturbances at voter registration centres are a result of age doubt, the Electoral Commission has observed.

Updating the media on the ongoing nationwide registration process, Deputy Commissioner Eric Bossman Asare, said: "We have also noticed that some of the disturbances occurring at some of our registration centres are due to the fact that some people are doubting the ages of some of the applicants". 

In his view, the Ghana card can eliminate all such doubt.

"This is the reason the Commission has been advocating the use of the Ghana card, which has the date of birth and the nationality of the bearers of the card and the abolishment of the guarantor system", Dr Asare explained to reporters.

"We are hopeful that in the next registration exercise, applicants will use the Ghana card as the means of identification,” he stated. 

At the same preas update, the Commission complained that it "continues to receive reports that minors and non-Ghanaians are being encouraged by certain people who are members of political parties, to register as voters".

Dr Asare said: "The Commission has seen a report from the Western Region specifically in Mpohor where some two people, who allegedly facilitated the registration of five minors, have been apprehended by the police". 

"We wish to use this opportunity to urge parents, especially, to dissuade their children who are less than 18 years old from registering as voters", he appealed.

Similarly, the EC besought the national leadership of the political parties "to discourage their executives in the regions and the constituencies from transporting minors and foreigners to the registration centres". The objective of the Commission as always, Dr Adare reitearted, "has been to have a credible register for the 2024 elections."

He said the EC believes “the political parties, as the main stakeholders in the general elections, must be dedicated to supporting a credible register as well". 

"Consequently, we find attempts by parties to support the registration of minors and foreigners completely unacceptable and aimed at undermining the country’s electoral democracy", he condemned.

"We urge the police to apply the laws on those who have been apprehended to serve as a deterrent to others in the enterprise of facilitating the registration of minors and foreigners. We want to urge the children who are not 18 years old that it is against the law for them to register as voters.”