The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Dramani Mahama has said the NDC will oppose any insistence on the part of the Electoral Commission (EC) to use the Ghana Card as the sole identification document for registration onto the electoral roll for the 2024 general elections.
Mr Mahama said this to the Volta Region caucus of the NDC in Ho over the weekend.
“The NDC will offer the stiffest opposition to the Electoral Commission if it insists on the Ghana card as the sole form of identity in the registration of eligible voters,” he said.
The Electoral Commission had the use of Ghana Cards for registration is the only way to rid the voter register of age-old problem of minors and foreigners.
Director of Electoral Services Dr Serebour Quaicoe said the opposition to this resolve by the EC notwithstanding, the Commission was convinced the use of Ghana Cards will reduce drastically the number of minors and foreigners on the register.
He was speaking at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Department of Political Science of the College of Humanities of the University of Ghana, Legon in June last year.
Dr Quaicoe expressed satisfaction in the Commission having solved, to a large extent, the issues of impersonation, multiple registration and multiple voting.
“But how do we address the issue of registration of minors and the registration of foreigners?” he sought.
The former Ashanti Region Director of Elections said most often than not, the political parties are heavily behind these infractions but later accuse the EC of allowing such infiltration.
“The Electoral Commission thinks that one way of addressing the issue is to use the Ghana Card,” he stressed.
“There has been a lot of arguments, and we are still battling it out and we are still insistent that let us use the Ghana Card so that it will address the issue of minors – because your date of birth is on the Card – and the citizenship, which is also on the Card.
“That is also a way to reduce drastically the registration of minors and foreigners.”
By Laud Nartey
