Use NIA biometric database for new register - PPP urges EC

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has thrown its support behind the?National Identification Authority (NIA) in what it describes as “a vindication of their long-standing position on the use of the national identification database for the compilation of the new voters register.”

It said it was heartwarming for the Executive Secretary of the NIA, Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah to come out to say the NIA had all the biometric data needed by the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters register.

In a press statement signed by the National Chairman of the party, Mr Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond, the PPP commended the NIA boss for “vindicating our long-standing position on the use of the national identification database for the compilation of the voters register.”

Collaboration

It said the position of the PPP was recently corroborated by 18 civil society organisations (CSOs), that indicated that if there was a need for collecting fresh data on citizens, the more appropriate, most lawful and financially responsible and justified approach was to let the NIA, the legally mandated authority for collecting national identification data, to collect and process the information and send the EC, the subset of the information it needed for the purpose of election.

“The EC can then use that information to update its systems,” the statement said.

“The PPP has been an advocate for a single national identification database to be shared by all state, quasi-state and private institutions,” it stated.

Waste



It said the position of the party was that the taxpayer must not be made to suffer unnecessarily when leaders fail to pluck low hanging fruits, stressing that “we have the opportunity to avoid potential fraudulent electoral outcomes which could spark violence in our country.

“Let us all remain wide awake in saving this land of rich resources and mighty talents from wasteful and unpatriotic regimes.” it stated

Background

At a press briefing in Takoradi last Friday, Prof. Attafuah said the NIA had all the data the Electoral Commission might need for a credible register.

He said the NIA had so far registered 7.2 million people which was more than 50 per cent of the voting population of Ghana adding that the EC, which had the constitutional mandate could decide to adopt the NIA’s scientific data or even use the Ghana Card as the voting card when it successfully completed its registration by March 30, 2020

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