The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Ken Attafuah has denounced allegations of a ploy to use the Ghana card to rig the 2020 general elections.
Insisting that there is no such ploy, Prof Attafuah called on media platforms not to give vent to the allegation because discussing it tends to cloak it with some semblance of truth.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), the largest opposition party in the country, has particularly accused the NIA and the Electoral Commission of a possible collusion to rig the election in favour of the New Patriotic Party-led government.
The NDC says the NIA deliberately deployed fewer equipment and staff for the exercise in its strongholds but moved every available resource to get the exercise done in the strongholds of the ruling party. But according to Attafuah, he believes it was not in the plans of the EC to make the Ghana card a key requirement for registration as a voter at the time the NIA started its enrollment and issuance of the card.
He also doubts if the NDC sincerely believes that the EC was rushing to make the Ghana Card a requirement sole because the registration exercise is progressing fast, or that because areas such as the Upper West and Upper East, noted as strongholds of the NDC, have recorded low enrollments hence the EC’s desire to use the card to the party’s disadvantage.
He said had it not been the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the NIA planned to complete its mass registration of Ghanaians by March 27, and to proceed with a two-week mop-up exercise in the Greater Accra Region from mid-April, as well as complete the registration exercise in the remaining five regions in May and early June.
Source:Fiilafmonline/Graphic
