Protect EC’s credibility, encourage people to get Ghana Card – PPOP

Political Parties Outside Parliament (PPOP) has called on all stakeholders and well-meaning Ghanaians to encourage people to register for ‘Ghana Card’ as well as help safeguard the credibility of the Electoral Commission (EC) and other state institutions.

Spokesperson for the group, Citizen Ato Dadzie in an interview with Alfred Ocansey on 3FM Sunrise Morning Show mentioned that a broad stakeholder consultation was held after election 2020 to review the whole election process and proffer solutions to the challenges that were encountered.

According to him, key among the various issues that were raised was minors infiltrating the electoral register and the inefficiency of the guarantor system to curb it. After several deliberations at the IPAC, it was realized that since the whole country is gearing towards a single database which is the ‘Ghana Card’, it was agreed that all parties should support that exercise so that the ‘Ghana Card’ would be used for the continued voter registration.

He explained that unfortunately for the political parties without seats in parliament, they are left out of important discussions that ensue in parliament, and even those that are in parliament tend to represent their political parties rather than their constituents hence decided to come together to have a common voice on pertinent national issues especially the bills that are discussed and passed in parliament.

“We the other political parties don’t want to leave the discussion to the duopoly (NDC and NPP) and we felt that if we want rely on our individual strength, we might not be making the necessary inroads so therefore let’s get together and forge a sort of coalition to be able to put our voice out there through the media so that our contribution to national discuss can be looked in a different light.” Ato Dadzie stated

He repeated that one of the key things we have to understand is that the EC’s interest is to give Ghana a credible election and the commission has made it clear that they will not disenfranchise any Ghanaian eligible voter.

“Some of us have been adarmant in registering; meanwhile having the Ghana card is very important and crucial. If all of us as political parties put in effort to encourage people to register for their ‘Ghana Card’ it will serve as well.” He stressed.

Political Parties without Representation in Parliament (PPOP) further appealed to all Ghanaians to criticize the EC constructively when the need be but however shouldn’t bring the commission into the partisan game.

“As PPOP we recently engaged the Electoral Commission again even though we were part of the discussion and drafting of the CI just to ensure that there will be flexibility, but we don’t want people to be complacent.” Citizen Ato assured.

The political parties include Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Great Consolidated Popular (GCPP), National Democratic Party (NDP), United Progressive Party (UPP), People’s National Convention (PNC), Power Unity Party (PUP), Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), among others.