Former President John Dramani Mahama has raised suspicions over the use of the Ghana Card to disenfranchise some Ghanaians ahead of the 2024 general elections.
Addressing members of the minority caucus in parliament in the Volta region after a training workshop, the 2020 National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer said the state institutions have become political tools under the Akufo-Addo administration used to intimidate opposing voices.
He accused the Electoral Commission of planning to use the Ghana Card to disenfranchise citizens at all cost, knowing very well that not everyone have had the chance to receive their cards after registering.
“One such institution is the Electoral Commission, which instead of making it easy for our citizens to take part in elections, rather takes delight in making it difficult. They appear determined to ensure the disenfranchisement of sections of our population at all costs through a misguided insistence on the use of the Ghana Card as the only source of identification for a voter card. How do you do this, knowing that the Ghana Card is not available to everyone who should have one?”
Mr Mahama insisted that until the National Identification Authority covers every Ghanaian, there must be room for the use of other forms of identification for registration to vote.
He added that “The Ghana Card is a relatively new feature of our national life and has its merits in the scheme of things. At the moment, it is being brandished more as a political tool around which all manner of schemes is being fashioned towards elections. There is the need to allow sufficient time for its full integration into our way of life before this kind of unhelpful exclusion of all other legitimately acquired, credible and time-tested forms of identification is implemented.”
