Minority parties speak on Ghana Card: Express varied opinions

Some minority political parties have expressed varied opinions over the decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) to make the Ghana Card the sole form of identification for eligible voters who want to get their names onto the voters register.

The parties, the People's National Convention (PNC), the Convention People's Party (CPP), the Progressive People's Party (PPP) and the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) gave their opinions on the issue in interviews with the Daily Graphic.

PNC

The General Secretary of the PNC, Janet Asana Nabla, said the party had accepted the EC’s decision to make the Ghana Card the sole source document for voter registration.

This, she said, was because the party believed the Ghana Card was more authentic and that it would promote transparency with regard to the voters roll.

She added that using the Ghana Card would eliminate the incidence of minors who were not eligible to vote in the 2024 general elections.

“We have accepted it because we realised that it is supposed to bring transparency, remove minors from the register and limit stress on our supporters”, she said.

CPP

The General Secretary of the CPP, Nana Yaa Akyempim Jantuah, however said she found the EC’s decision to make the Ghana Card the sole document for voter registration problematic.

“Why is it that the birth certificate I was given at my birth cannot prove I’m a Ghanaian? What is it about the Ghana Card that everything needs to be linked to it?,” she asked.

She, therefore, stated that other forms of identification like the passport and birth the certificate should be allowed for voter registration because those were documents that showed the Ghanaian citizenship of people.

The General Secretary further said making the Ghana Card the sole document for voter registration carried the risk of disenfranchising many Ghanaians because the process for getting the cards were fraught with problems.

She was, therefore, of the opinion that other forms of identifications should be allowed for the voter registration until the issues of acquiring the card were completely dealt with to ensure that Ghanaians were not disenfranchised when it was time to vote.
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PPP

The National Secretary of the Progressive People 's Party (PPP), Remy Paa Kow Edmundson, said making the Ghana Card the sole document for voter registration carried the risk of disenfranchising many Ghanaians because the process for getting the cards was riddled with problems.

He said he had personally received many complaints and concerns from ordinary Ghanaians who had still not been able to acquire their cards after months of being registered.

He was, therefore, of the opinion that other forms of identifications should be allowed for the voter registration until the issues of acquiring the card were completely dealt with in order not to disenfranchise Ghanaians when it was time to vote.

LPG

The General Secretary of the LPG, Jerry Owusu Appauh, said the party was “solidly behind” the use of the Ghana card as the sole document for the upcoming limited voter registration exercise.

“We think that it will be good and easy for Ghanaians to use the card for the registration process; additionally it is not as if the EC is going to scrap the old register and use the Ghana card to compile a new voters register,” Mr Appauh further explained.