The Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, has urged the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) to use the National Identification Card (Ghana Card) for the 2024 elections.
According to Prof Attafuah, it will be a great disservice to Ghana should any other card aside from the Ghana Card be used for the elections.
He added that his outfit is ready and will be able to issue the Ghana Card to all eligible voters should it be given the needed support, asaaseradio.com reports.
“Speaking for myself, I think it will be a tragedy if we do not (use the “Ghana Card” for election 2024). There is no reasonable basis in my view for that not to happen”
“17.3 million of a population 15 years and above, so that those who are going to fall into the category of people eligible to register and vote by age 18, a lot of them have already been captured.
“We still have a certain margin of approximately 2 million. Those 2 million people who have not registered, if they desire to register, there is no reason why they cannot be registered within a maximum of 6 months and we are talking 2024, (some two clear years) to the day the electoral commission would say we are closing the registration,” the NIA boss is quoted to have said at a press soiree on Friday, November 18.
He reiterated that should the EC decide to use the Ghana Card and the Parliament of Ghana give it the needed approval, the NIA will ensure that no eligible voter is disenfranchised.
Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has stated that he is yet to receive a brief on the new Constitutional Instrument (CI) the EC has indicated it will be tabling for a continuous voters registration exercise it wants to undertake.
According to him, if the Electoral Commission fails to meet the leader of the house, they should forget about laying the CI before the house.
“…I have not been given any brief by the EC on any proposed instrument coming from them. And so I raised this some time ago, and I’m yet to receive them to be briefed on them. Until that is done, they should forget about laying such Instruments in the house,” he said.
A few months back, the Electoral Commission announced the proposed Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations 2021 Constitutional Instrument, which seeks to make the Ghana Card the only proof of nationality for its impending limited registration exercise.
The minority caucus of Parliament has rejected the proposal of the EC saying that the use of only the Ghana Card will lead to a lot of eligible voters being disenfranchised.
You can also catch GhanaWeb TV’s interview with Elvis Afriyie Ankrah below:
Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority, Prof Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah