There’s no ploy to rig 2020 election, stop giving it vent – Ken Attafuah
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Ken Attafuah has denounced allegations of a ploy to use the Ghana card to rig the 2020 general elections.
Insisting that there is no such ploy, Prof Attafuah called on media platforms not to give vent to the allegation because discussing it tends to cloak it with some semblance of truth.
Sounding frustrated and aghast, he said “This ploy matter I think we should drop it,” because “there is no substance,” adding that “if you keep repeating something that is untrue to the exclusion of other truths or other statements, it gets to a point where people begin to believe” the untruths.
“There is no ploy”, he maintained.
He was speaking on Asempa FM Tuesday.
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The National Democratic Congress (NDC), the largest opposition party in the country, has particularly accused the NIA and the Electoral Commission of a possible collusion to rig the election in favour of the New Patriotic Party-led government.
The NDC says the NIA deliberately deployed fewer equipment and staff for the exercise in its strongholds but moved every available resource to get the exercise done in the strongholds of the ruling party.
But according to Attafuah, he believes it was not in the plans of the EC to make the Ghana card a key requirement for registration as a voter at the time the NIA started its enrollment and issuance of the card.
He also doubts if the NDC sincerely believes that the EC was rushing to make the Ghana Card a requirement sole because the registration exercise is progressing fast, or that because areas such as the Upper West and Upper East, noted as strongholds of the NDC, have recorded low enrollments hence the EC’s desire to use the card to the party’s disadvantage.
He said had it not been the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the NIA planned to complete its mass registration of Ghanaians by March 27, and to proceed with a two-week mop-up exercise in the Greater Accra Region from mid-April, as well as complete the registration exercise in the remaining five regions in May and early June.
The NIA targeted to register about 16.2 million Ghanaians during the exercise, however he gave the following as progress of work so far:
- Total people registered - 11,064,967
- Total cards printed – 10,846,822
- Total cards issued – 7,078,402
“But let’s get back to the basis of the allegation”, he said, admitting that though the NDC’s claim that the EC wants to make only the Ghana Card and the Ghana Passport the only valid documents for registration of voters, it is equally very true that the two documents are not the only means one can get registered as a voter.
He said the Vouching For process also deserves attention, but which the NDC claims it is slow just so to discredit arrangements for the Ghana Card acquisition.
He explained that previously there were no more than 300 commissioners of oaths, however the NIA worked with the Judicial Service to train and commission over 1,400 of them for employment and deployment at all registration centres to administer oaths for free.
According to Ken Attafuah, that programme by government ensured that there were at least two or three commissioners of oaths at every registration centre, which has since seen over 70 per cent of enrolled Ghanaians going by the vouched for process. That arrangement, he said, also avails the Electoral Commission.
Ken Attafuah assured that by the end of the exercise, everyone registered would have been issued with the card.