EC to create new register that costs $80m – Haruna Iddrisu alleges
EC denies claims it wants to compile new Voter Register
Former member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Oduro Takyi, has warned the minority caucus of Parliament to resist any attempt by the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) to make Ghana’s National Identification Card (GhanaCard) the primary document for the Voter Register of the 2024 election.
Oduro Takyi, who was a leading member of the NPP in the Bono Region, alleged that, the use of the GhanaCard for the 2024 election is a part of the grand plan of the party to win the next presidential election at all cost.
Speaking in an XYZ TV interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Takyi added that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) should not think that it will easily win the 2024 elections because of the poor performance of the NPP government.
“They (the NPP) always have a superior strategy… and no NDC member or leader should take the NPP for granted. The NPP is not kidding… they have a superior strategy backing the ‘Break the 8’ (agenda).
“… the Director of Operation at the Presidency, Lord Commey, has said they will not give power to the NDC… Nana Addo also said that he will be handing over the presidency to an NPP president. Since that time, they have decentralized the strategy (Break the 8) to every structure of the NPP.
“If the NDC leadership, does nothing and the GhanaCard is passed as the only primary document for the 2024 election register, we have lost the election in advance,” he said in Twi.
Oduro Takyi, who has now defected to the NDC, said that the press conference organized by the minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu, warning the EC against any attempt to use the GhanaCard as the only document for the 2024 Voter Register was not necessary because it is only the NDC Members of Parliament who can stop such a move.
The Minority Leader, while addressing the media at Parliament, claimed that the EC is seeking to compile another voters register with the base document being the new Ghana card.
According to him, his outfit will kick against such moves by the Commission because the new register is a wasteful expenditure and will disenfranchise a lot of Ghanaians who have not registered or secured their Ghana cards yet.
The EC has, however, dismissed the claims that it intends to compile a new Voters' Register for the 2024 election.
"Indeed the 2020 Voters’ Register came at a cost so I don’t think anyone at the Electoral Commission will say they want to discard the register. I can assure you that it is the best register ever compiled by the commission; so we have confidence in the register and we will never dispose of it," the Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe said in an interview with Peace FM.
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