The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has admitted that using the Ghana Card as a sole document to register voters is a good idea.
Speaking on Dwaboase on TV XYZ, the chief scribe of the opposition party indicated that it was possible until all eligible Ghanaians have had their cards from the National Identification Authority (NIA).
His comment follows a warning by the Minority in Parliament against the Electoral Commission’s plan to compile a new voters’ register using only the Ghana card.
According to the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, such a move will threaten the stability of the country as the inalienable rights of legal-age Ghanaians to vote and to exercise that right to vote will be infringed upon.
“Our understanding as we pick it up is that the Electoral Commission of Ghana is desperately planning to discard the 2020 Voter Register and replace it with a new voter register – which register has caused the taxpayer and the people of Ghana to build with $80million thereabout,” he said.
If it happens, that will be the second time the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission has discarded a voters’ register.
But Asiedu Nketiah has cautioned the NIA and the EC on the move.
“If you ask me that should we use the Ghana card exclusively for voter registration, I’ll say yes; it’s wonderful,” he told host Kwame Minkah and urged that all Ghanaians be given their Ghana cards before such a move is made.
Ahead of the 2020 general elections, the EC had justified its call for a new voters’ register by claiming that the 2016 register contained the names of non-citizens and, therefore, a new register was the best way to expunge those names from the register.
Source: myxyzonline