The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has maintained its position that moves by the Electoral Commission (EC) to exclude the existing voters identification cards from the list of valid documents required for registration of eligible voters in the 2020 general election was unreasonable and unconstitutional.
According to the party, the move, in addition to the insistence of the EC to make the Ghana Card, which registration and issuance process is far from completed, as one of two basic requirements, confirms its allegations that the electoral body was up to no good.
The NDC’s Director of Elections, Mr. Elvis Afriyie Ankrah who made the assertions while addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday, May 21, said the EC’s position is contrary to its earlier position that the Ghana Card was not going to be used whatsoever in the pending 2020 elections.
“The point has to be made, that 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 of Ghana as the best prima facie evidence of voter eligibility in the Abu Ramadan Case. 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 (19196, 2004 & 2012),” he said.
The NDC also described as “a concocted barefaced lie”, claims by officers of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), that political parties were consulted on proposals to amend CI 91 at an IPAC meeting on March 25, 2020.
Elvis Afriyie Ankrah said no such consultations with political parties took place and that claims to the contrary by the NPP cannot be true. He said the matter was neither on the agenda of the said IPAC meeting nor was it captured in the meeting in the records of the said meeting as having been discussed.
“In any case, the proposed CI was laid in Parliament on 17th March, 2020, EIGHT (8) clear days before the 25th March, 2020 IPAC meeting in question,” he pointed out, saying it is preposterous for the General Secretary of the NPP to suggest that the proposed CI was discussed at IPAC eight days after it had been laid in Parliament.
The NDC maintained that registration requirements provided under the proposed CI which has been laid in Parliament to govern what it said was “the needless, illogical and wasteful new voter registration exercise”, are too narrow and wholly inadequate for purposes of identifying the about 18 million eligible voters.
He explained that there are less than two million Ghanaian passport holders who are 18 years and above, while only about 6.5 million holders of the Ghana Card are 18 years and above. “This is part of the grand conspiracy between the EC, NIA and the NPP to disenfranchise over 10 million eligible voters, mostly in NDC strongholds.”
Elvis Afriyie Ankrah maintained that in many places held to be strongholds of the NDC, only three to five percent of those enrolled onto the National Identification Authority registration have been issued with the Ghana Card, a situation he said explains why the party believes there is a rigging ploy in place to hand the government and President Akufo-Addo victory in the 2020 elections.
Also in attendance were the NDC's National Chairman, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo; Mr. Kofi Attor, a Vice-Chairman; General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketiah; National Communication Officer, Sammy Gyamfi and other Functional Executive members.
Source: Daily Graphic
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NDC, please listen to the REASON why we CANNOT use the old voter ID cards: 1. One of the reasons for compiling a new register is that the current one is bloated. 2. To say the current register is bloated means there are people on the existing register who SHOULD NOT be on it. 3. This also means there are people walking the streets of Ghana with voter ID cards they SHOULD NOT have, because they didn't and don't qualify to register. 4 Now if you're doing a new register to clean it of those bloated numbers, it DOES NOT MAKE SENNSE to then ask people to bring their old voter ID card to be registered again. 5 Because if we do, we'll end up with another bloated register. 7 Dear NDC, please do you now UNDERSTAND???
the same voters ID card some people used the national insurance card to acquire? the same national insurance ID card which the supreme court ordered the EC to clean from the voters register which the EC could not do?
IT IS DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND THE REASONS FOR NDC CRY OF WOLF. THEIR ALLEGATION THAT EC AND NIA WANT TO FAVOR NPP OR ANY POLITICAL PARTY IS FRIVOLOUSSS. THEY COMPLAIN AS IF NIA AND EC HAVE SET DIFFERENT RULES FOR DIFFERENT POLITICAL PARTIES FOR THEIR REGISTRATIONS. CONTRARY, NEITHER NIA NOR EC DEMANDS ANY DECLARATION OF PARTY MEMBERSHIP BEFORE ANY REGISTRATION. THE RULES THEY SET UP TO MAKE THEIR WORK EFFICIENT IS APPLICABLE TO EVERYBODY IN EVERY PART OF THE NATION. THE ESSENCE OF NIA AND EC REGISTRATION IS TO IDENTIFY AND ASCERTAIN ALL TRUE GHANAIANS. AS MUCH AS THEY SHOULD INCLUDE EVERY WILLING GHANAIAN TO BE REGISTERED, IT IS ALSO THEIR DUTY TO EXCLUDE FOREIGNERS, OR AS IN THE CASE OF NIA TO IDENTIFY THEM AS NON-GHANAIANS. NONE OF THE TWO REGISTRATIONS IS FINISHED. NIA REGISTRATION IS ONGOING. EC IS YET TO BEGIN. IT IS UNREASONABLEEE FOR ANY ONE TO GENUINELY COMPLAIN OR BLAME SOMEBODY FOR EXCLUSION. LET THOSE NOISEEE MAKERS PROVE THAT, IF NOT BY THEMSELVES, THEY HAVE BEEN EXCLUDED BY THE FAULT OF SOMEBODY. NDC SHOULD STOP CRYING "WOLF, WOLF WOLF" WHEN THERE IS NO WOLF. THEY ARE RATHER PORTRAYED THAT THEY INTEND TO PERPETUATE SOME FRAUD BY DEMANDING TO CREATE LOOPHOLES IN THE REGISTRATION PROCESS. THE CONCERN OF ANY SERIOUS POLITICAL PARTY AT THIS TIME SHOULD BE THE STRATEGY TO EDUCATE THEIR FOLLOWERS TO TAKE THE EXERCISE SERIOUS. THEY SHOULD ENCOURAGE THEIR MEMBERS TO SATISFY THE REQUIRED CONDITIONS. NOTHING IS GOT ON SILVER PLATTER. NOBODY WOULD YIELD TO PRESSURE OF DEMONSTRATIONS, PRESS CONFERENCES AND THREATS OF VIOLENCE. THE RESORT TO ANY OF THEM CANNOT BE HELPFUL TO THE PERPETRATORS THEMSELVES. IT PAINTS THEM EVILL IN THE EYES OF MANY. IT CANNOT ACHIEVE ANY MEANINGFUL GOAL FOR THEM. JUST AS THE WORLD AND GHANA HAVE SURVIVED THE CORONA VIRUS, THE WORST IN THE CENTURY, SO SO WE SHALL SUCCEED TO DEFEAT ANY DIABOLICC INCIDENT OR OUTBREAK. LIGHT SHALL ALWAYS DEFEAT DARKNESS NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES.
NDC was against the Ghana Card and advised their members not to register....... Now they are blaming the NIA for not registering their members. Hypocrate NDC people. Ev!l people.
Brazil 2014 World cup th!ef..... What happened to Dzamefe commission report? This Elvis Afriyie guy sent $3 million cash by air to Brazil. Unbelievable!