The Speaker of Parliament in the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, Justice D.F. Annan, has waded into the controversy over which institution is mandated to issue the national ID cards saying, ? It is the Electoral Commission (EC) which has the institutional experience to conduct studies into the programmes.?
Making a brief statement at a public forum organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) on the ?Nature and sources of monitoring and implementation problems facing the EC?, on Monday, the septuagenarian former Speaker said he was a little surprised to hear that there is a dispute between the EC and the Ministry of Economic Planning and Region Integration over the responsibility for the programme.
?I don?t see the need for any dispute whatsoever,? he said. ?There should be no dispute about such integral need. The important thing is to ensure that a National Identification System (NIS) emanate from an independent body,? he emphasised.
According to Justice Annan, the need for the NIS was first proposed during General Kutu Acheampong?s regime and in the time when he (Justice Annan) was chairman for the National Commission for Democracy, a commission, which has been changed to the EC.
He said at the time there was a whole study for a national ID system and the basis for that study was that an independent body, like the EC, be invested with the power to conduct a campaign which would have eventually led to a national identification system.
Said Justice Annan: ?The policy then was the Electoral Commission should take charge of the programme.?
This intervention by the former Speaker has come at a time when the row over the right of issuance of the IDC cards rages on. While the Ministry of Economic Planning and Regional Integration has been quoted in one of the national dailies as explaining that its involvement in the national ID card scheme is not an attempt to usurp the powers of the EC, the commission has also been quoted as asserting that it is the most capable institution with the requisite know-how to undertake the project.
The row has even gone farther to attract a memorandum from the directorate of the EC to the chief of staff at the office of the president.
Leading the discussion at the IEA forum, the deputy chairman of the EC, David Adenze Kanga, said that the EC is mandated by the law that established the commission, Act 451 (2) (c) of 1993 to undertake the preparation of identity cards. Yet, in the ongoing controversy, he said, the EC is not too worried by who does it or not.
But he said that, given the suspicion and mistrust that usually characterises elections in the country, if the data base of the NIS is in the hands of a body that is perceived to be under the control of a party or parties, then when the EC attempts to access that data base to take names for its register, people may suspect that its has been corrupted.
Meanwhile, Kanga said there is the need for the EC to be assisted by all stakeholders, NGOs and the general public to monitor the implementation of its functions especially in the areas of registration of voters and elections. He however, objected to the establishment of an election observer body (a state control body) in the country.
Kanga also suggested that there is the need for a law or instrument for campaign, and political party funding disclosure to be enacted to cover the parties and individual contributors.
?I am convinced that steps should be taken to make the code of conduct for political parties to become more functional. The parties should evolve some laid down procedures for sanctioning parties that breach the code,? Kanga said.
