The Supreme Court has dismissed the use of a birth certificate as proof of Ghanaian citizenship.
This was the unanimous position of the seven justices after they mulled over a suit brought by a private citizen, Mark Takyi Banson.
This is contained in the court’s judgment in the case filed by private citizen Mark Takyi Banson which court delivered judgment on June 25 together with the case filed by the opposition NDC.
While the NDC case wanted the current voters ID card to be used in the registration exercise, Mr. Banson made a case for the inclusion of birth certificate insisting it proves identity of prospective voters as Ghanaians who have turned 18.
It explained that the birth certificate “is not a form of identification. It does not establish the identity of the bearer. Nor does it link the holder with the information on the certificate.”
Ghana has a population of 29.77 million with 16.6m qualified to vote. But the citizenship question continues to be a controversial subject despite the Supreme Court judgment.
Ghana amended its nationality law in 2000, to the 2000 Ghana Citizen Act Dual Citizenship Scheme, which came into effect from Friday, 1 November 2002, in accordance with the provisions of the Citizenship Act 2002.
