The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has reiterated its opposition to the decision of the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters’ register for the 2020 general elections.
According to the party, it will continue to employ all legitimate means to stop what it describes as needless, illogical, and wasteful new voters’ register agenda of the Jean Mensa-led Commission.
This is the second time in a week that the NDC has news conferences to kick against the new electoral roll.
It appears not many Ghanaians are paying serious attention to them, hence the repetition of news conferences to attract some listening ears.
The party warned that the proposed Constitutional Instrument (C.I.126) that has been laid in Parliament by the Commission to govern the registration exercise is narrow and inadequate for the purposes of identifying eligible voters.
This, the NDC said, is part of a grand conspiracy between the EC, NIA and the NPP to disenfranchise over 10 million eligible voters.
Addressing a news conference on Thursday 21st May 2020, former Minister of Sports, Mr. Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, argued that making the passport and the Ghana card the only base documents for the intended registration exercise is dangerous.
He indicated that there are less than two million holders of the Ghanaian passport who are 18 years and above while just about 6.5 million people above 18 years have the Ghana Card.
He questioned why the EC is therefore bent on excluding the existing voters’ card from the list of registration requirements provided under the proposed C.I.
According to him, the existing voters’ ID card is the most widely available identification document in Ghana with over 16 million holders and has been upheld by the Supreme Court as the best prima facie evidence of voter eligibility in the Abu Ramadan case.
“So why have they excluded an identification card that has been upheld by the Supreme Court as the best prima facie evidence of voter eligibility,” he quizzed?
“It is the Identification document with the strictest, most rigorous and transparent acquisition procedure, and has been used in the compilation of all voter registers since the inception of the fourth Republic (1996, 2004 & 2012),” he stated.
Mr. Afriyie Ankrah observed that the issuance of the Ghana Card, which the EC is seeking to rely upon for the registration, has been incomplete and fraught with anomalies.
According to him, only a small percentage of those who registered for the Ghana card have received their cards, which when rely upon will compel over 93% of eligible voters to resort to the second identification method of vouching as the norm rather than an exception, especially in NDC strongholds.
He argued that the hasty responses from the EC, the NIA, and the NPP to the NDC’s news conference last week has rather exposed the criminal conspiracy to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters and subvert the will of Ghanaians.
The people of Ghana, he warned, are however discerning and vigilant and will not allow any attempt to undermine the integrity of the 2020 elections and the democracy.
