Nana Biribireba Boateng
A suggestion has been made to the relevant authorities in the country to ensure that every hospital, clinic or health centre has an office of birth and death registry.
This is to enable parents to acquire birth certificates for their new born babies in the first month of birth.
This was the view of a minerals consultant, Nana Biribireba Boateng during a contribution to a morning show program dubbed” Good Morning Boss”, hosted by Wofa Kofi Appiah on Boss FM in Kumasi.
Currently the subject of using an old voter ID card and birth certificate as primary identification cards for registration in the impending voters registration exercise is before parliament in the constitutional Instrument (CI) to be used for the 2020 general elections.
DETAILS:
Contributing to the discussion, Nana Biribireba Boateng was of the view that most Ghanaians do not acquire their birth certificates at birth, but rather at a later stage in life when they need it for acquisition of passports.
This has given room for non-citizens resident in the country to obtain our birth certificates through fraudulent means, and the surest way to prevent that is acquisition at birth.
He argued that if a birth certificate that not guarantee one’s citizenship and right to vote, then holders of Ghanaians passport should equally be disqualified since the birth certificate is the primary identification document for passport acquisition.
Parliament is yet to deliberate and agree to the EC’s decision to use only passport and Ghana card as the only primary documents for voter registration, excluding other identification cards such as birth certificates and old voter ID cards, a move that the minority ND has kicked against are challenging at the Supreme Court.
ISSUES:
The NDC member of parliament for Bawku Central Hon. Mahama Ayariga who is a ranking member of parliamentary select committee of subsidiary legislation has threatened to take the matter to court despite the party doing same, he he is not allowed to use his birth certificate to register as a voter.
