Ghana: Compilation of new voter register brouhaha: We have the right to vote?
Published: 3/Jun/2020
Source: Ghanaweb.com
Columnist: Nukunu Foga
As Electoral Commission of Ghana prepares to embark on voter registration for the 2020 general elections, some misguided or misinformed Ghanaians have started pointing figures at some Ghanaians calling them foreigners.
For instance, a cousin to the President of Ghana, Gabby Asare Otchere – Darko, a lawyer by profession did not understand why Ketu South should not record the highest voter population in Ghana.
You would agree with me that Ketu South has always been the target of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Many supporters and sympathizers in NPP believe Ketu South voters’ roll is populated by non – Ghanaians.
It saddens me that our brothers and sisters, who because of political expediency believe this unwarranted, unjustified attack on Ketu South.
Who then is a Ghanaian?
[…]
From the above provisons, it is lucidly clear that if one of your parents or grandparents is or was a Ghanaian, you are also a Ghanaian. It is immaterial whether one is born outside or inside Ghana.
Can a mother transmit citizenship to their children?
In Ghana, some misguided and misinformed Ghanaians thought that if your mother or grandmother was or is a Ghanaian; you could not be a Ghanaian. These sections of Ghanaians thought that when your mother is a Ghanaian and your father is a Togolese or Nigerian, you are a not a Ghanaian.
Even when they thought you are a Ghanaian, they would say you not a full Ghanaian. These people thought you could only be full Ghanaian when your father is a Ghanaian. They are dead wrong.
Though our 1992 Constitution is explicit on this issue, some mischievous Ghanaians have deliberately set out deprive some Ghanaians of their citizenship just their mothers come from Ghana and their father from another country.
This is exactly what happened to Bonito Olympio, one of the children of Sylvanus Epiphanio Olympio in Ghana. The case went before an Accra High Court presided over by His Lordship Justice Wiredu (as he then was) who later became the Chief Justice of Ghana.
In that case, Mr Bonito Olympio (Not Gilchrist Olympio, but his elder brother) received a letter from the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Interior stating that his permission to remain in Ghana had been withdrawn and that he must leave within 48 hours.
Read further: https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Compilation-of-new-voter-register-brouhaha-We-have-the-right-to-vote-969598