In times of elections, the state and its laws establish the criteria for qualification for the vote across the national territory. However a national debate about foreign nationals from Togo registering and voting in Ghana was triggered for the 2016 elections. The opposition party of the time – the New Patriotic Party – pointed out that they had found more than 70,000 individuals registered on both the Ghanaian and Togolese voters’ rolls. The border between Ghana and Togo has shifted after World War 1 but it presents more connections and mobility than separation. Families are spread across the border, and marriage continues to link families on one side to families on the other. Consequently, many inhabitants in the border region probably meet the criteria for dual citizenship (legal since 1992). However there are other issues at stake in the phenomenon of ‘cross border voting’ that pertain to belonging.
This presentation will argue that citizenship criteria as defined in the law cannot always be applied at voters’ registration, for lack of means, legibility and knowledge of the law. This is even more salient in the border region where state jurisdictions and national territories meet. I suggest that local criteria of belonging are used to identify who belongs and who does not belong, especially in the context of an unreliable system of identity documentation and porous borders. Local gatekeepers and individuals then navigate the system and find opportunities in registration and elections to improve their daily lives. This ultimately calls into question the basis of the biometric electoral process since it questions ‘who’ actually votes; but it also calls for a redefinition of what ‘belonging to the nation’ actually means.