The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the Government ofconspiring with the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Identification Authority (NIA) to rig the impending general election.
It said the NIA’s total reliance on the Birth Certificate and Passport as the main registration requirements for the Ghana Card was problematic and would disenfranchise a lot of Ghanaians.
“This will lead to a situation where about 76% of Ghanaians will have no ID documents to establish their eligibility.”
A statement issued by Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the National Chairman of the Party, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the objective ‘was to disenfranchise a significant number of persons in NDC strongholds in furtherance of the EC’s grand scheme to rig the 2020 general election for the ruling New Patriotic Party’.
He said those without birth certificates and passports had to go through a cumbersome process of obtaining a sworn oath before they could be registered for the Ghana card – “a process we have maintained will slow down the registration process and disenfranchise a lot of Ghanaians” .
He said according to the NIA’s own data, out of an estimated population of 17.3 million who were 18 years and above, only 6.5 million had been issued with the Ghana Card.
“The implication is that, almost 11 million (constituting 62%) of eligible voters will have to go through the sworn oath option to be able to register for a Voters’ ID, if the EC’s illogical and wasteful decision to compile a needless new Voter’s Register for the 2020 general election materializes.”
“Even more disturbing is the breakdown of percentage per region of those who have to go through a sworn oath to register as voters,” he said.
Mr Ampofo said the inclusion of the existing voters ID card in the registration requirements for the Ghana Card and any new voters’ ID was, therefore, imperative and non-negotiable.
The NDC also accused the NIA for allegedly suppressing the registration of the Ghana Card in mostly regions, which were known to be NDC strongholds, while it massively mobilised an unprecedented number of registration equipment for the exercise in the stronghold of the ruling Party, the Ashanti Region.
On the compilation of the new voters’ register by the EC, he said: “This is not only impracticable but simply defies common sense and would surely disenfranchise a lot of eligible voters if the EC is allowed to proceed on this dangerous path.”
The time constraint imposed by Covid-19 on the nation, he said, made the exercise impracticable.
Source: GNA
