A presidential staffer, Dennis Miracles Aboagye has defended Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia over his claim that the Ghana card could become a primary document for voters in future elections.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Monday, the Director of Local Government, Decentralisation and Local and Rural Development at the presidency stated that he is happy that Dr. Bawumia “has seen the light of the Ghana card ahead of everybody in the country and trying to draw the citizen’s attention.”

According to him, there is the need to “encourage Ghanaians and let them understand that all should strive to go to the NIA office and the NIA should also ensure that every Ghanaian who qualifies gets access to the card.”

However, the Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Peter Otokunor has opposed the Vice Presidents’ views.

According to him, he does not agree to replacing the Voter’s ID with the Ghana card for the 2024 elections.

“Nobody should delude him or herself that making such comments and bringing such public discourse will get Ghanaians to support the idea that we are going to use the Ghana card for election,” he stressed.

This, he said is because Ghanaians are not ready to use our Ghana cards for election, “the system is not ready, the membership and coverage are not ready, the extent of the depth of the registration is not up to the point where we can use it as basis to vote.”

He further alleged that the integrity of the Ghana card has been compromised.

He explained that “crooked and political means are being used to discriminate against people who are otherwise qualified to have the Ghana card.”

But reacting to Dr. Peter Otokunor’s comment about the systems not being ready for use of the Ghana card as Voter’s ID in 2024, Mr. Aboagye said that the only people who have issues with the Ghana card are members of the opposition party.

He surmised that Dr. Otokunor does not disagree with the Ghana card being used someday. However, his “only challenge is that it is coming from the Vice President.”