Policy Think tank, Strategic Thinkers Network-Africa (STRANEK) has sued the National Identification Authority (NIA) and the Attorney General on the removal of the Voter ID card as an identity document required before a person can obtain a Ghana card.
STRANEK is seeking a true interpretation from the Supreme Court of what constitutes proof of citizenship in Ghana as captured in Article 6, and 42 in 1992 constitution of Ghana.
The suit from STRANEK was triggered after the NIA began the registration process for the Ghana Card from the Presidency and Parliament House.
Meanwhile, according to the National Identification Authority as part of the registration requirement for the Ghana card, Ghanaians are to provide a passport or a birth certificate as proof of registration.
In the absence of those two identification materials, persons who wish to be registered and be given the new Ghana Card must come with two witnesses who must have registered already on the Ghana Card to testify that the applicant is a Ghanaian.
However, The Minority in Parliament has threatened to embark on a demonstration to protest the National Identification Authority’s decision to only accept passports and birth certificates as valid identification forms for the registration and instant issuance of the Ghana Card.
According to the Minority Spokesperson for Communications, Alhaji A. B. A. Fuseini, they are not in support of the NIA's quest because over 70 percent of Ghanaians could be denied the Ghana Card if the Authority goes ahead with its directive.
“We are talking about a population of about 30 million Ghanaians today. But you are doing an exercise in which only 7 million people, at best, in the widest possible participation [will be included].â€
“Twenty-Three million people will be excluded. They will be deliberate, as a matter of conscious policy, be left out of the exercise. How can you call that a national exercise?â€, he queried.
Alhaji Fusseini added that the National Democratic Congress minority is prepared to hit the streets and demonstrate if that's what it will take for there to be a change.