Why not allow the NIA to manage the elections? Franklin Cudjoe to EC

President and Founder of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has questioned why the Electoral Commission of Ghana will not allow the National Identification Authority (NIA) to handle the 2024 election if the card being issued by the authority, the Ghana Card, must be the only document needed for voters’ registration.

According to him, per the justification being given by the commission on the need to use only the Ghana Card to register voters, the best thing to do is to let the NIA manage the elections.

In a series of tweets shared, on Tuesday, March 1, 2023, the IMANI boss posited that the NIA managing the election will ensure that only eligible voters are registered.

He added if the NIA is allowed to conduct the elections, it will not only ensure that only eligible voters get to take part in the election but it will save the country, millions of Ghana cedi.

“Here is a thought. The Electoral Commission (EC) believes the National Identification Authority's (NIA's) Card is the only fool-proof card every Ghanaian needs to be registered on the voter roll.

“In fact, in the last election 10 million out of 13.2 million voters registered with the NIA card. So why not allow the NIA to manage the elections without the need for the EC? NIA's officers can be deployed with their verification machines."

“After all the NIA card has every holder's biometric details and needed profile such as age, sex, occupation, etc. The system will accept only card holders aged 18 and above.

“We will be saving at least GHS 700m out of a potential GHS 1.5bn that may be budgeted for the EC to manage the elections. We also stand to save millions of $$ that the EC might suggest may be needed to upgrade their biometric verification systems,” the tweets he shared read.

The chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, Jean Mensa, called on Members of Parliament to support the decision of the commission to use the Ghana Card as the main source of identification for registration of new voters.

This, she says, is very important due to the evolving electoral process.

“Honourable members, it is in this vein we urge you to support the decision of the EC to rely on the Ghana card as the main source of identification for those who wish to register as voters. Our country has evolved, it is important that our electoral process evolves to meet the exigencies of times,” she said.

Jean Mensa was speaking during her appearance in Parliament to brief the committee of the whole on the controversial proposed Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) which is seeking to make the Ghana Card the only identification document to be used to guarantee citizenship if passed.

View the tweets below:

2/In fact, in the last election 10 million out of 13.2 million voters registered with the NIA card. So why not allow the NIA to manage the elections without the need of the EC? NIA's officers can be deployed with their verification machines.

— Franklin CUDJOE (@lordcudjoe) March 1, 2023

4/We will be saving at least GHS 700m out of a potential GHS 1.5bn that may be budgeted for the EC to manage the elections. We also stand to save millions of $$ that the EC might suggest may be needed to upgrade their biometric verification systems.

— Franklin CUDJOE (@lordcudjoe) March 1, 2023

Watch the new episode of The Lowdown below:



IB/FNOQ