The National Identification Authority (NIA) has dismissed claims by the opposition NDC that is it conniving with government and the Electoral Commission to rig the December polls for President Akufo-Addo.
Chairman of the NDC Samuel Ofosu Ampofo on Thursday accused the parties of Voter suppression in NDC strongholds.
“The President seeing defeat staring glaringly at him, he is in conjunction with the Jean Mensa led EC and the Ken Attafuah led NIA desperately scheming to rig the 2020 elections and hold on to power at all cost.
“Not even the unusual circumstances we find ourselves in which requires that we pull together for our collective survival as a nation are enough to deter the actors of this plot from their ungodly act,” Mr. Ofosu Ampofo said.
Responding to the accusation, the NIA in a statement Friday said: “There is no truth to this allegation. NIA does not operate on the basis of political strongholds. Our operations planning is based on population statistics obtained from Ghana Statistical Service. There has been no deliberate effort to prevent applicants in any region to register”.
It added: “While it is true the exclusion of the voter ID card as a primary registration requirement has increased the number of applicants needing to be vouched for, this process has been a part of our electoral practice under the Fourth Republic. The only difference now is that requirement that the oath be sworn before a Commissioner for Oaths or Magistrate. This ensures greater document integrity as guarantors appreciate the consequences of perjury in swearing the oath of identity. NIA ensures that a Commissioner for Oaths is available at every registration centre, at no cost to the applicants. Indeed, over 70% of applicants for the Ghana Card used this method to validate their citizenship nationwide.
“It is not true that NIA deployed over 5000 MRWs into the Ashanti Region. The maximum number ever deployed was 3,600, as some of the old equipment had become faulty and some of the new ones were kept at the Head Office and used for hot-swapping when some of the equipment fails”.
Meanwhile, the ruling NPP has dismissed claims by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that it is conniving with the Electoral Commission and the National Identification Authority to rig the 2020 polls.
The campaign manager for the NPP Peter Mac Manu told a news conference in Accra the President can win the polls on his own merit.
“NDC must be reminded that the NPP, as an opposition party, beat the NDC in 2026 and by the largest margin ever in Ghana’s history against an incumbent President in Ghana’s history. It is not the fault of any Ghanaian that the NDC chose to bring back as their presidential candidate for 2020, the very man at whose hands the NDC suffered their biggest defeat in history,” he said.
He added: “It is not the fault of NPP that the NDC chose to bring back as their 2020 presidential candidate, the very same man who gave Ghana the worst economic growth performance since 1994. We do not need the EC to rig an election in our favour. A government that has put 1.3 million children to school, who, if NDC were in power, would be on the streets, does not need an election to be rigged in its favour”.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM