The National Identification Authority, NIA has said that it will follow the guidelines by parliament irrespective of calls by former President John Agyekum Kufuor for the inclusion of voter ID card to its list of base documents required for registration for the Ghana Card.
“The NIA also takes note of Ex-President Kufuor’s comment on the exclusion of the voter’s ID card as one of the identity documents required by an applicant for registration for the Ghana Card. The NIA, as a creature of statute, will continue to be governed by, and respect, the existing laws passed by Parliament,†a statement issued by the Corporate Affairs Department of NIA said on Wednesday 27 June 2018 in response to the suggestion of Mr Kufour.
Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor backed the minority NDC's call for the inclusion of the voter's ID to be used as a prerequisite for the acquisition of the Ghana card when he spoke to journalist after he was registered and issued with a Ghana card early this week.
"The voter's ID is a document that will help identify a citizen as a citizen with the sovereign authority residing in him or her so if voter's ID is not incorporated in this, then when come to citizens go to make a government where would you be, how will you say truly you also have the 'krokomoti' power to make and unmake a government, so voter's ID should be part of the requirements"
However, the NIA believes Kufuour’s registration is an “unqualified endorsement of the registration exercise and his clear rejection of the boycott by the Minority in Parliamentâ€.
“There is absolutely no intention on NIA’s part to disenfranchise or denationalize any Ghanaian. The National Identity Register being compiled by the NIA is not a substitute for the Voter’s Register which the Electoral Commission alone is by law mandated to compile, and the Ghana Card is not a substitute for the Voter's Identity Card,†the statement added.