NIA's data to end electoral discrepancies

Accra, Feb. 18, GNA - The National Identification Authority (NIA) has noted that its registration data could help to put to rest disagreements over the credibility of electoral polls, which have been a major challenge to elections in Africa.

It said its registration data was credible enough and would detail the actual number of persons in a place to avoid bloating of election results and thereby make all the parties to accept the final results without having cause to doubt its credibility.

Dr William Ahadzie, Executive Secretary of the NIA said this at a meeting with a 10-member Malian delegation made up of Members of Parliament and political party leaders, who called on him at his office in Accra on Wednesday.

The visit was to afford the delegation the opportunity to learn about Ghana's national identification system and how it could help deepen democracy.

The delegation, led by Dr Amadou Sy, President of the Malian Centre for Inter-Party Dialogue and Democracy (CIDD), arrived in the country last Saturday and had since held discussions with Ghana's Electoral Commission, the National Commission on Civic Education, leadership of Parliament among other institutions to learn about the country's democratic system and replicate it in Mali to improve their governance system. Mali, a West African country, returned to constitutional rule in 1992 after years of military interventions.

Dr Ahadzie told the delegation that even though Ghana's laws gave the Electoral Commission sole rights to register qualified Ghanaians for national elections, the NIA was hoping that the EC would accept its data for elections assuring that they were 100 per cent authentic. He said the NIA had the capacity to produce even passports as well as help other countries to produce their national identification cards and urged Mali to contract Ghana when they were ready to implement the identification system.

Dr Ahadzie took the delegation through the processes NIA had instituted to register Ghanaians and to ensure that the data was credible adding that the final data would also be useful in effective economic planning. Dr Sy said even though democratic governance had taken root in Mali, much needed to be done to improve the system. He said "that is why we chose Ghana to understudy the democratic practice because Ghana has become an icon in advancing democracy on the continent".