Only Ghanaians should be eligible to vote, not foreigners, says Electoral Commission

Ghana's Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa has said that only Ghanaians names should be on voters register and eligible voters must be Ghanaians, not foreigners, according to a news report by News Ghana.

She said the onus was on Ghanaians to draw the attention of security agencies and the registration officials for the necessary action to be taken to protect the integrity of the voter's register.

Mensa, speaking at the seventh edition of 'Let the Citizen Know' series in Accra, appealed to the security agencies to be vigilant.

"You cannot go to Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso to register and vote," she said.

Jean Mensa said that Ghanaians had the responsibility to ensure that eligible voters who had the privilege to vote were citizens of Ghana who qualified to vote and not citizens from neighboring countries.

Mensa gave the assurance that the EC would take the necessary steps to expunge the names of foreigners from the register to ensure that only Ghanaians had their names on the electoral roll.

She reiterated the Commission’s resolve to compile a clean and credible register for which it would explore all means to do so.

Mensa thanked the media for their interest and support for the successful conduct of the exercise.

Dr. Bossman Eric Asare, EC Deputy Chairman in charge of Corporate Services, said, "We have noticed disturbing reports since last week where Ghanaians who have registered will front for people of other nationalities to register. These are largely concentrated in border towns but there are some in other places too."