Election 2024: Using Ghana card for voting smells like a scheme – David Tamakloe

Editor in Chief of digital newspaper, Whatsup News, David Tamakloe, believes calls for the Electoral Commission (EC) to use the Ghana Card for elections sounds controversial.

He posits this move is a scheme by the EC to achieve their desired end which may be skewed towards favoring a political party.

According to him, the EC opposed the idea being presented now in 2018 and expressed surprise over their new position after causing financial loss to the state with the compilation of a new voter register ahead of election 2024.

“The proposal to use the Ghana Card for elections sounds controversial and smells like a scheme. As part of preparations towards the 2020 elections the EC asked for a new voter register but it was suggested that the Ghana Card could substitute the voter ID in the future but the (EC) opposed this, going ahead to compile the register. Anyone who knows about the new voter register will know the process was compromised,” he told Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show.

Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission, Serebour Quaicoe, has defended the use of the Ghana Card as a sole means for identification in registering new voters for the 2024 elections.

According to him, the decision to use the Ghana Card is to prevent chaos at polling stations during elections, citing confusion that emerged out of the 2020 election at the polling stations.

The editor claims the EC has demonstrated time and again that their interest is not in peaceful elections. He argues the EC should have never put this proposition across as a little over 16 million Ghanaians out of the lot have registered for their Ghana cards. “Just 16 million Ghanaians out of the 31 million population have registered for the Ghana Card with just 13 million having received their cards. Even with the 13 million some have not had their cards validated and that is a huge concern. This whole thing is just a fantasy of the EC.”

Cautioning the EC, David Tamakloe called on the EC to take up the responsibility of ensuring the rights of voters are not curtailed in any way. “The EC should be interested in getting all eligible voters on the register to vote.”