Ghana card not mandatory for voter registration - NIA boss clarifies

Ghanaian

The Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof. Ken Attafuah, has clarified that possessing a Ghana Card is not a mandatory requirement for all Ghanaians to be eligible for voter registration.

He said this during an interview on Asaase Radio, where underscored Ghana's democratic principles, emphasizing that the country's democracy is not based on compulsion.

Prof. Attafuah

Read full articlefurther explained that while individuals have the right to register for a Ghana Card, it is not an obligatory process. Therefore, making universal ownership a prerequisite for it to be the sole ID for voter registration is deemed impractical.

Addressing concerns about potential disenfranchisement, Prof. Attafuah shared NIA's calculations, revealing that around 240 thousand individuals aged 15 and above are yet to register for a Ghana Card out of the 19 million Ghanaians in that age group. He assured that the NIA has the capacity to register the remaining individuals within three months.

"At minimum, as of the last time I checked, we have captured 17.8 million out of that 19 million," Attafuah stated.

He also highlighted the NIA's efforts to facilitate registration by deploying facilities to communities, opening regional and district offices, and establishing premium registration centers nationwide.

Prof. Attafuah concluded by emphasizing that the proposed legislation in Parliament by the Electoral Commission relies on the NIA's assurance that all necessary measures have been taken to register the qualified population.