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New C.I: NDC Still Advocating For Crude Primitive Way Of Registration - Dennis Miracles

The Director of Local Government Services at the Office of the President, Dennis Miracles Aboagye has castigated the Minority in Parliament and the National Democratic Congress for opposing the new Constitutional Instrument (C.I) proposed by the Electoral Commission.

With the new C.I, the EC seeks to use Ghana Card as the only identification medium to qualify eligible Ghanaians to be enrolled onto the voters' register.

According to the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, this new C.I if passed by Parliament will "guarantee the credibility of the register and elections, prevent enrolment of minors, prevent foreigners from voting, eliminate the guarantor".

She emphasized, in her speech at Parliament, that "the Ghana Card will not be used to vote in the 2024 elections. The Ghana Card is only a requirement to register as a voter", adding “we do not intend to disenfranchise persons who qualify to vote. It is in our interest to register them. It will be an antithesis to deny any Ghanaian the right to vote”.

But the Minority has raised concerns over this request and registered their intention to oppose it.

To Dennis Miracles, the NDC is opposed to the new C.I proposal because it will prevent them from rigging the elections.

"I am not surprised if they are opposing something that will not take anybody's life away. The NDC are not against the Ghana Card registration. They are worried about the breakdown of their election rigging machinery...The real fight the NDC are fighting for is that crude primitive way of registration", he told Nana Yaw Kesseh on Peace FM's morning show "Kokrokoo".

He touted the use of the Ghana Card as a major improvement on the electoral process.

"We should be improving. Elsewhere in the world, don't they post ballot paper to the electorates in the house? Elsewhere in the world, you receive at home your ballot paper by post, so with them, some even cast their votes by post days before the election day. So, countries improve; we evolve.

"We get better but in getting better, there will always be challenges. Why? We all know that the guarantor system was not the best but we were using it. So, if there are going to be challenges with the use of the NIA, it doesn't mean we shouldn't use it. We should use and then improve upon the challenges", 
he argued.

Contrary to views that the use of the Ghana Card will erase the guarantor system, Dennis Miracles further argued that "if you want to use the guarantor system, no problem. Go and use that process to get an NIA card and come and register for your Electoral Commission card".

"Do we have to fight over this?", he questioned.

He however called for national and parliamentary support for the new C.I, stressing "it is that election rigging machinery that Togolese, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast people can come and vote here is what the NDC is afraid of but it will be broken down. Whether they like it or not, it will be broken down. Only Ghanaians should vote!"