EC’s attempts to make Ghana Card sole document for voting rejected

The Minority in Parliament remains firmly opposed to any proposal to convert the Ghana Card into the exclusive identity document for voters’ registration.

This stance comes in response to ongoing efforts by the Electoral Commission (EC) to pass new legislation aimed at implementing such a change.

Appearing before the Assurances Committee of Parliament, Executive Secretary of the NIA, Kenneth Attafuah, argued that the time is right to integrate the Ghana Card into the electoral process, citing the significant number of Ghanaians who have already been registered.

“Until every single Ghanaian who is entitled to register has been registered, or who has registered has been issued with the Ghana card, then the Ghana card cannot be used for other purposes, such as elections or school enrollment, or whatever it is. I think we ought to be able to respect a certain quantum as significant enough.

“If you have 19.9 million, age 21 and above, and you have 18.1 million captured, that is a significant quantum, and it ought to be 815, and above. It ought to be a justifiable basis for saying, that the Electoral Commission should be able to use the NIA database, because it will help all of us to create a credible society that is clean and trusted,” he said.

However, MP for North Tongu and Chairman of the Assurances Committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa strongly disagreed.

He reiterated his party’s position that the Ghana Card cannot be used for voting purposes until every eligible voter has been issued the card.

“Voting is a constitutional right. Every Ghanaian has the right to vote so if there is any impediment, once the person doesn’t have the base document, if we want to use the national ID card, let’s make sure all of them have it. So, the political party that I belong to, we have passed a resolution. If we don’t see evidence that every eligible voter has the card, then in our view, we will be violating the constitution,” he said.