The Electoral Commission is pushing for the passage of a Legislative Instrument (LI) which will require persons wishing to register during the upcoming voters registration exercise to provide a proof of identity before they are registered. The proposed LI which is currently before Parliament, will mandate Ghanaians to provide either their passport, national health insurance card, national identity cards or drivers license before they are allowed to register and obtain the new biometric voters registration card. Those who do not have any form of identification or might have misplaced their identity cards will be required to fill a form, signed by two guarantors who must have a valid identity card before they can be registered. The move according to the Director of ICT at the Electoral, Hubert Akumaih, is to prevent the registration of foreign nationals and underage children. Speaking at a seminar on the biometric registration exercise organized by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) Mr. Akumaih expressed the hope that Parliament will pass the LI before the biometric registration exercise begins March 24. According to him, government has so far released funds to the EC to the tune of GH¢134,726,083.00 out of the EC’s total budget estimates of GH¢243,528,305.00 for the conduct of both the presidential and Parliamentary elections later in December. He said the Commission has already acquired 7,000 kits for the registration of voters in the 23,000 polling stations across the country. Additional kits will be provided at polling centers where voter population is high. As a means of ensuring a decent and clean registration exercise, the EC he indicated has grouped the polling stations in each district into clusters with each cluster comprising of four polling stations. Six personnel will be in charge of the registration of prospective voters at each cluster. Each team will spend 10 days at a polling station before moving on to the next polling station thus spending a total of 40 days on the nationwide exercise. Apart from the six-man registration team, three registration supervisors will also be present at each polling cluster with two technicians on hand at each district to address any technical hitches that may occur. Mr. Akumaih also indicated that the biometric registration exercise will serve as the foundation for establishing a continuous registration system in the country as well as help the EC effectively plan for subsequent elections. He appealed to all eligible voters to register when the exercise commences on March 24 and also urged Ghanaians to assist the EC fight electoral fraud to ensure free and fair elections in December.