The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is to blame for the 3.5 million people who are without a Ghana Card, a Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ernest Owusu Bempah has said.
According to Mr Bempah, the majority of the 3.5million people are members of the NDC who were instructed by the then General Secretary of the party Johnson Asoedu Nketia, now National Chairman, not to go and register.
The NDC initially directed its members to partake in the Ghana Card registration.
A press release signed by the then General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia on Monday, 23 July 2018, explained that the Functional Executive Committee (FEC) at its meeting on Thursday, 12 July 2018, took a decision not to participate in the ongoing National Identification Card (Ghana Card) registration exercise until the party’s demand that the Voter’s ID card is included as one of the requirements for registration, is met.
The statement said: “The likelihood that the Ghana Card would be used as the major document for the compilation of a new voter register makes it all the more compelling for the inclusion of the current voter’s ID card as a requirement for the ongoing Ghana Card registration exercise since its coverage is more extensive and its validity more genuine.
“Party faithful throughout the country are, therefore, enjoined to boycott the Ghana Card registration exercise until the authorities yield to our demand and include the voter’s ID card as a requirement”.
The statement further indicated that: “…All party executives at all levels of the party are to ensure that FEC’s directive spreads like wildfire throughout the country”.
But the party made a U-Turn and called on its members to register.
The then Deputy General Secretary Peter Boama Otokuno said the arrest of the NIA officials was evidence of a process “hit with massive fraud, irregularities and wanton abuse of the process.”
Currently, the NDC Minority Parliament are opposing the Constitutional Instrument (CI) that seeks to make the Ghana Card the sole identification document for voter registration ahead of the 2024 general elections.
On Thursday, February 23, they rejected officials from the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Identification (NIA) who were in Parliament to brief the House on the proposed CI.
The Member of Parliament or Tamale South Haruna Iddrisu said the Minority were opposed to any move by the EC to use the Ghana Card as the sole identification document for voter registration.
In his view, any such move by the EC would hurt the right to vote and be voted for.
Speaking on the Big Issue via telephone on TV3 Monday, February 27, the former Minority Leader indicated that there are 3.5million people who are without Ghana Card.
He questioned whether the EC is going to deny all these 3.5 million people from exercising their right to vote because they do not have a Ghana Card.
“There is the right to vote and be voted for, the NDC will defend that right,” he said.
“We are contesting the use of Ghana Card as the sole reference for purposes of getting registered as a voter,” he said.
He stressed “the right to vote and be voted for is sacred. 3.5 million people don’t have the card, can you tell these 3.5 million persons not to vote?”
Reacting to this issue in an interview with 3news.com, Mr Ernest Owusus Bemaph said “NDC is the only party that employs the services of foreigners to come and vote for them in an election which is why they don’t want the Ghana Card idea.
“They know, it is a fact, it is an open secret, that the NDC top party gurus employ the service, they are even scattered in the Asanti region bringing the foreigners under the cover of coming to galamsey planning to use them in 2024 and we are aware of it. The only political party that employs the service of minors, foreigners to vote for NDC
“That is why they are always beleaguered when we talk of using Ghana Card to register because they know that will not favor them. Going forward, NPP is well awake and we will make sure that we agree with the EC’s decision to allow every citizen to use Ghana Card to register and vote, that’s the right way to go, when you go to all developed countries noncitizens are not allowed to vote.
“It is only the NDC political party that came out emphatically that their members should not go and get Ghana Crad, Asiedu Nketia then the General Secretary of the NDC and now the National Chairman told the whole world that their party members should not go and register.
“So it is nobody’s fault that the 3.5 million people, the majority of them who are NDC supporters don’t have the card, they don’t have the card because Asiedu Nketia told them not to go and register.
A party that is incompetent in opposition, they can’t collate results in an election, they told the world that they were in the comfortable leader when they had lost.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana