Asiedu Nketia incited the 3.5m NDC people without Ghana Card not to register - Owusu Bempah

According to Ernest Owusu Bempah, deputy director of communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the government is to blame for the 3.5 million persons who do not have a Ghana Card.

The majority of the 3.5 million persons, according to Mr. Bempah, are NDC members who were told not to go and register by Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the party's former general secretary and current national chairman.

The (FEC) decided at its meeting on Thursday, 12 July 2018, to forgo taking part in the ongoing National Identification Card (Ghana Card) registration exercise until the party's demand that the Voter's ID card be included as one of the requirements for registration is satisfied, according to a press release signed by General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketiah on Monday, 23 July 2018.

The likelihood that the Ghana Card will be the primary document used to compile a new voter register makes it all the more compelling for the current voter's ID card to be included as a requirement for the ongoing Ghana Card registration exercise since its coverage is more extensive and its validity is more genuine, the statement read.

Party supporters are urged to boycott the Ghana Card registration process until the government complies with our request and makes the voter's ID card a requirement.

According to the statement, "...all party executives at all levels of the party are to guarantee that the FEC's decision spreads like wildfire throughout the country."

But, the party abruptly changed course and urged its supporters to sign up.

The arrest of the NIA employees, according to the then-Deputy General Secretary Peter Boama Otonuno, was proof that the process had been "struck with major fraud, irregularities, and wanton abuse of the process."

The NDC Minority Parliament is now fighting against the (CI), which aims to make the Ghana Card the only form of identity accepted for voter registration prior to the general elections in 2024.

They dismissed representatives from the National Identification (NIA) and the Electoral Commission (EC), who had come to Parliament to brief the House on the proposed CI, on Thursday, February 23.

Haruna Iddrisu, a member of parliament representing Tamale South, stated that the Minority was against any attempt by the EC to use the Ghana Card as the only form of identity for voter registration.

Any such action by the EC, in his opinion, would be detrimental to the right to vote and be elected.

The former Minority Leader mentioned the Big Problem on TV3 on Monday, February 27, and stated that 3.5 million people do not have a Ghana Card.

He inquired as to whether the EC would prevent all 3.5 million voters from exercising their right to vote on account of their lack of a Ghana Card.

The NDC would safeguard the freedom to cast a ballot and be elected, he declared.

In order to register to vote, he remarked, "We are opposing the usage of Ghana Card as the sole reference."

"The right to vote and be voted for is sacred," he emphasised.

Can you advise the 3.5 million people who don't have the card not to vote?

Speaking on the Big Issue via telephone on TV3 Monday, February 27, the former Minority Leader indicated that there are 3.5million people who are without Ghana Card.
He questioned whether the EC is going to deny all these 3.5 million people from exercising their right to vote because they do not have a Ghana Card.

“There is the right to vote and be voted for, the NDC will defend that right,” he said.

“We are contesting the use of Ghana Card as the sole reference for purposes of getting registered as a voter,” he said.
He stressed “the right to vote and be voted for is sacred.
3.5 million people don’t have the card, can you tell these 3.5 million persons not to vote?”

Reacting to this issue in an interview with 3news.com, Mr Ernest Owusus Bemaph said “NDC is the only party that employs the services of foreigners to come and vote for them in an election which is why they don’t want the Ghana Card idea.

“They know, it is a fact,  it is an open secret, that the NDC top party gurus employ the service, they are even scattered in the Asanti region bringing the foreigners under the cover of coming to galamsey planning to use them in 2024 and we are aware of it.
The only political party that employs the service of minors, foreigners to vote for NDC

“That is why they are always beleaguered when we talk of using Ghana Card to register because they know that will not favor them.

Going forward, NPP is well awake and we will make sure that we agree with the EC’s decision to allow every citizen to use Ghana Card to register and vote, that’s the right way to go, when you go to all developed countries noncitizens are not allowed to vote.

“It is only the NDC political party that came out emphatically that their members should not go and get Ghana Crad, Asiedu Nketia then the General Secretary of the NDC and now the National Chairman told the whole world that their party members should not go and register.
“So it is nobody’s fault that the 3.5 million people, the majority of them who are NDC supporters don’t have the card, they don’t have the card because Asiedu Nketia told them not to go and register.
A party that is incompetent in opposition, they can’t collate results in an election, they told the world that they were in the comfortable leader when they had lost.”