Two political parties — the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) — and a former independent presidential candidate, Jacob Osei Yeboah (JOY), have backed the decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters register.
The PPP said the EC could not be denied the appropriate tools it genuinely needed to do a credible job, while the LPG said peace was priceless, hence the need for Ghanaians to rally behind the EC to compile a new biometric voters register.
Mr Yeboah also called on all Ghanaians to support the acquisition of a biometric voter management system (BVMS) for the 2020 elections.
The First Chairperson of the PPP, Mr William Doworkpor, and the Founder and the Leader of the LPG, Mr Kofi Akpaloo, spoke to the Daily Graphic in separate interviews, while Mr Yeboah indicated his position in a statement.
Competence
In his statement, Mr Yeboah posited that no patriotic Ghanaian, with competency in the critical but significant role a biometric voters register (BVR) played in successful and peaceful elections, would doubt the call by the EC for a new BVR for the 2020 elections.
“The call is professionally justified and all Ghanaians should support the acquisition of a new BVMS,” it said.
“We should be unassuming but conscientiously understand that the call by the EC for a new BVR is an unimpeachable confirmation that the national identification system has woefully failed due to incompetent implementation and systemic deliverable integration.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) could have automatically provided an updated BVR, so that the EC would have concentrated on compatible BVMS,” it added.
Under the circumstances, it said, the EC had no choice but to opt for the new BVR which Parliament had, accordingly, served Ghanaians well by giving approval for its acquisition.
NDC, others
The statement indicated that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some minor political parties were apprehensive over the compilation of a new BVR not because they did not have the technical competence but that they were afraid that the “EC’s independence
Source: Daily Graphic
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Why will some political parties bring people from the neighboring countries to register for voters ID card but they are not doing same for the national ID? Are those people no more Ghanaians? This clearly shows that the voters register is bloated with foreigners.
If there no money why that ? We need money to build more schools to stop this senior high traffic schools,build more health centers , construct more roads ,more farms and factories, more police post , etc I would wish the gov .to improve upon this by making it gradual .First do not cancel or throw away the old one but do gradual fading it away. It is time when a gets to eighteen years, just goes and register without struggling.
i had to leave my work for two days to get my nia card. Some have been there three to four times without getting their cards. i shudder to think i have to devote another day to register for the voter id. do our politicians care about opportunity cost. can we begin to adopt an integrated approach to some of these things?
THIS WHOLE PROCESS OF NEW VOTERS' REGISTER IS MORE OF PERSONAL INTEREST RATHER THAN THAT OF THE COMMON NATIONAL INTEREST. I WISH THE EC CHAIR HAD BEEN TOLD FROM DAY ONE THAT THIS IS YOUR (EC'S) BUDGET FOR THE ELECTION YEAR, 2020 AND THAT IF YOU (EC CHAIR AND OTHERS) ARE ABLE TO SPEND LESS THAN 70% OF YOUR BUDGET THEN YOU CAN POCKET THE REMAINING FOR YOURSELVES, WOULD THE EC CHAIR BE ASKING FOR SO MUCH FROM THEIR BUDGET TO COMPILE A NEW VOTERS' REGISTER? SIMILARLY, AND TO THOSE PARTIES LENDING THEIR SUPPORT TO THE EC FOR THE COMPILATION OF THE NEW VOTERS' REGISTER, IF THESE PARTIES WERE ASKED TO CONTRIBUTE FROM THEIR OWN RESOURCES OTHER THAN FROM THE TAX PAYER'S MONEY BECAUSE IT IS IN THEIR OWN INTEREST TO COMPILE A NEW VOTERS' REGISTER WOULD THESE PARTIES HAVE ACCEPTED FOR A NEW REGISTER TO BE COMPILED? WE DON'T SEEM TO CARE MUCH ABOUT HOW WE USE OR SPEND THE TAX PAYER'S MONEUY GHANA AND AFRICA AT LARGE. WHAT A SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS FOR THIS NATION.
Oh Ghana!!! National Identification Authority is compiling data on Ghanaians aged 18 years and above and issuing them Ghana Card as a proof of citizenship, and we are giving EC another 443 million cedis to enable them compile data on Ghanaians aged 18 years and above so they could vote? Why not the EC extract NIA data and use. We need to respect the citizens, queuing in the Sun to undergo registration processes is no joke.
Why can't institution be allowed to think and plan for the country.