Stop the issuance of Voters ID Cards - PPP to EC

The Progressive People's Party, PPP has asked the Electoral Commission (EC) to stop the issuance of voters identity cards. The party insists that the Commission must allow the National Identification Authority, (NIA) which is mandated to issue IDs to compile a credible voters register before the 2016 elections. These were contained in a list of recommendations the party submitted to the Electoral Commission.

The General Secretary of the PPP, Kofi Asamoah Nsiaw has said that the EC should not entertain itself with the job of compiling a voters register.

"If we can find money and give to the EC to compile a new voters register, why don't we channel the same money to the NIA which solves a multitude of problems. So the argument that the NIA has not been able to do that will not be sustainable if we find resources and give to the EC which in our view doesn't have the mandate to compile a register or to compile a database of who is a citizen or who is not a citizen".

”We have been living in with this wrong idea that somehow the EC can identify ghanaians. They don't have that mandate so when they go and put in the CI 72 that you must show a previous national health insurance which has now been outlawed to present that as an indication of your nationality, it is wrong. So the EC should not be entertaining itself with the job of compiling a database of citizens of Ghana, he said on Starr FM.

Mr. Nsiaw further suggests the introduction of an electronic voting system to eradicate cheating and manipulation of results at elections.

Meanwhile, the EC has given a deadline of september 22 for all stakeholders to suggest possible ways of improving the electoral process over allegations that the voters register is bloated.