Minority to hold further consultations on petition on NIA and EC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority Caucus will be holding consultations with the Leadership of the Parliament on its petition on the National Identification Authority (NIA) and the Electoral Commission (EC).

Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader on the floor of Parliament has disclosed.

The EC is seeking to lay a Constitutional Instrument (CI) before the House, which would make the Ghana Card the only document for proof of citizenship for voter’s registration.

The Minority Leader in his petition, which was captured in the November 1, 2022, edition of the Order Paper of the House said the proposed Public Elections (Registration of Voters) CI should not be laid until the backlog of Ghana Cards, which the NIA had admitted to, had been cleared.

He said since the proposed Public Elections (Registration of Voters) CI, as a subsidiary legislation could not override the substantive provision in the constitution on the citizens’ as the only evidence of citizenship would deny millions of citizens the right to register and to vote, other forms of evidence such as Ghanaian passport and the guarantor system must be added to the Ghana Card as evidence of citizenship in the proposed Constitutional Instrument CI

“Any further action on the proposed CI by or in Parliament should be frozen until consultations have been initiated and concluded with the major stakeholders, especially the political parties, including the NDC and civil society.”