Ghanaian Engineer and Scientist, Ing Dr Bright Atsu Sogbey has warned against a compilation of a new voters’ register by Electoral Commission.
He said such a register would be heavily flawed if the approved ID cards for the registration are not properly verified.
“EC’s new register will be absolutely flawed if primary IDs are not either cross-checked and/or validated at the registration centres, as fake Ghana cards and passport IDs can be presented,” he argued.
He noted that there are many skillfully printed fake Ghana Cards and Passport IDs in the system and they can be used at the registration centres to outwit EC officers if there is no proper verification system at the centres.
Dr. Sogbey, who is the President of Science and Technology Advocacy Renaissance for Africa (STARA), showed two Ghana Cards with different ID Numbers and registration dates that belonging to one person with same photo, saying that was an example of a fake ID that can bloat the new voters register.
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“This shall heavily defeat the EC’s purpose of compilation of a new credible register,” he said.
Dr. Sogbey suggested that technically, as it is done in the banks, the IDs presented at the registration centres must be verified through the EC’s system of verification synchronised to the issuing authorities such as the NIA and Passport Office, adding that this is the standard practice worldwide.
According to him, anything other than that will mean the product thereof is heavily flawed and will therefore make the so-called new register worse than the current register, in terms of credibility.
Dr. Sogbey is therefore calling on the Supreme Court to, as a matter of urgency, stop the EC from going ahead with this technically and situationally-challenged registration exercise, to avert any instability as Ghana chalks success in her 28 years’ progressive democratic governance.
