The Electoral Commission of Ghana has denied knowledge of the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin’s summons to appear before him, along with the National Identification Authority (NIA), and provide a briefing on the new constitutional instrument that aims to make the Ghana Card the only document for the registration of voter ID.

According to the Electoral Services Director at the EC, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, the commission does not rely on hearsay in its operations, and the Speaker should have officially written to the Commission if he had issues with the processes involved.

“We’ve not heard anything from the speaker. Officially, they have to write to us if they have issues with our C.I. We have no letter from parliament, and we don’t work with hearsay. We’ve already met the subsidiary committee and the budget committee, but nobody has invited us to come because we can only go to parliament when we have been invited. It’s like going to somebody’s house without invitation,” Dr. Serebuor said in an interview with the host of Kumasi-based Oyerepa TV’s morning show, Kwesi Parker-Wilson.

Dr. Serebour's remark follows a warning from Alban Bagbin requesting the EC to forgo introducing the new C.I. in parliament if they don't get along with the House leadership.

The EC asserts that because they haven't received an official invitation, they are unable to comply with the Speaker's request.

Dr. Serebour then reiterate that the move by the EC to make the Ghana Card the sole document for the registration of voters' ID remains unchanged.

He also added that the total number of Ghanaians captured and registered for the Ghana Card by the NIA officials is over 17 million.

“We met the NIA officials about 2 weeks ago and per the statistics, they have covered more than 17 million Ghanaians. The backlog now is about 400,000 that is persons who are yet to receive their cards after being registered. I can tell you that some of the district officers are empty now because the NIA officials have registered everyone in the district.”

“People are no longer complaining about the issuance of the card and we have two more years to go, so we are still standing by our earlier position,” he added.

Source: The Independent Ghana|