EC to produce new Identity Cards

Akwatia, Aug. 20, GNA - Ghanaians may most likely vote in the 2012 General elections with a new voters Identification (ID) Cards, Mr David Kanga, Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) has disclosed. He said the present ID cards had outlived its usefulness and could be faked by some individuals to cheat during elections

Mr Kanga said the EC would do away with the present laminated cards. He explained that when the EC first issued laminated cards, there were no lamination facilities in the country but presently they were freely available everywhere.

Mr Kanga said fraudsters could therefore use the scanning machine to produce fake cards. He said that was the more reason why it had become necessary to change the ID Cards to suit the present day circumstances, by adopting new technology. At the just ended Akwatia Parliamentary re-run polls in six polling stations, some voters managed to use fake ID cards to exercise their franchise.

Mr Kanga who was at Akwatia to personally observe the elections was shown some of the fake cards at the Yoruba Mosque "A" polling station. He said the bearers of those cards however escaped arrest and possible prosecution since the polling officials felt arresting them could spark violence to disrupt the polls. Mr Kanga noted that somebody managed to scan pictures from the voters register to print the fake cards.