A Member of the Communications and Legal Team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba, has accused the National Identification Authority of intentionally slowing down the Ghana Card registration and issuance process in NDC strongholds.

According to him, this is part of government's grand scheme to rig the elections in favour of the New Patriotic Party.

His comment comes on the back of concerns raised by the NDC about the Electoral Commission’s resolve to admit the Ghana Card only as the identification document for voters’ registration in the upcoming registration process towards the 2024 elections and beyond.

According to the NDC, the decision by the EC will end up denying millions of Ghanaians their rights to vote as many people have either not registered for the card or are yet to receive their cards following registration.

While, the EC insists that the use of the Ghana Card as the sole source of identification for the continuous voters’ registration exercise is the surest way to rid the electoral register of minors and foreigners, the NDC says with the rollout of the cards at a snail’s pace, millions of Ghanaians eligible and desirous to exercise their voting franchise will be prevented from doing so.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, Abraham Amaliba said, “Indeed we have information that the NIA in our strongholds is slowing down the processes and making it difficult for our people in our strongholds to acquire the Ghana Cards. And that’s where the Chairman of the party indicated that there’s some collusion just to ensure that the NDC and its members do not get the Ghana Card so as to register.

“And we are saying that in all serious democracies, what they do when it comes to registration is to look for a document which is common, a document of identification which is common to the citizens. Here we are in this country the basic document which is the Ghana Card is not even accessible.”

He stated that should the NIA be well equipped to churn out Ghana Cards at a much faster rate than they are currently doing, the NDC will have little qualms about the EC’s decision to make the Ghana Card the sole identification document for registration.

“Evans, I’m saying that the institution that is responsible for issuing the cards is saying that they have been starved of resources. Was it deliberate to starve them of resources? And then they cannot roll out these cards in ways that will make it easy for all Ghanaians to have.

“There is no way that even if a single Ghanaian, qualified, 18, is of sound mind and is desirous to be on the register, there is no reason why his inability to have access to the card through no fault of his should be denied the right to vote. That’s the point. That’s the fundamental point of this argument,” he said.

The NDC has since communicated their decision to drag the EC to court should it go ahead to lay the new CI before Parliament.