Veteran Journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has accused the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) of deliberately trying to disenfranchise eligible Ghanaians with its insistence on the Ghana Card being the only primary document needed for voters' registration.
Pratt indicated that the EC's insistence on using only the Ghana Card for voters’ registration does not make sense because the National Identification Authority, the body responsible for issuing the cards, has continuously stated that it cannot print out cards to all persons who need them within a particular time frame.
In an interview on Good Morning Ghana monitored by GhanaWeb, the journalist added that the actions of the EC can only mean that it wants to disenfranchise some Ghanaians.
"How can we understand what is happening? Here is the National Identification Authority telling us that given their capacity, the prevailing condition and so on, they are unable to ensure that every qualified Ghanaian has the card within a certain time frame.
"And then you have institutions like the Election Commission and the National Communications Authority and so on saying that no, you must have a Ghana Card. How do you explain this?
"The NIA itself says no, we can't do it. This can only come down to a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise people, to reduce people's access to SIM cards and so on. That is all it can come to. No other explanation exists," he said.
Kwesi Pratt made these remarks while reacting to the EC's declaration that the guarantor system would no longer be used for the registration of voters in the country.
According to the commission, the guarantor system will no longer be used because it has a lot of issues that affect the quality of the electoral register, citinewsroom.com reports.
Deputy Chairman of the commission in charge of operations, Samuel Tettey, who disclosed this, said that his outfit would only be using the Ghana Card for the next voters' registration.
He added that no Ghanaian would be disenfranchised because persons who do not have the voter's card can go to the district offices of the commission to get registered anytime they get the Ghana Card.
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has, on the other hand, welcomed the decision of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) to abolish the guarantor system and the use of only the Ghana Card for the upcoming continuous voters' registration for the 2024 election.
Watch Kwesi Pratt's submission in the video below (from 1:55:00)
You can also watch this episode of People & Places here:
