Over 30,000 Cases of Double-Registration Detected in NIA Ghana Card Exercise

The National Identification Authority (NIA) has detected over 30,000 cases of double registration since the beginning of the Ghana Card registration in country.

The Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof Ken Attafuah who disclosed this said some persons who were yet to receive their cards were re-registering as a result.

He cautioned Ghanaians to refrain from re-registering since the act amounts to fraud, punishable by law.

Prof Ken Attafuah at a press conference today [June 17, 2020] warned that persons who are suspected to have re-registered will not receive their cards.

“32,756 cases of double registration have been recorded. This is a situation where an applicant attempts to register twice at a particular registration centre or a different centre.

“When this happens the applicant’s card will not be printed because the system holds on to it for reasons of suspected fraud.

“Having said that all applicants whose cards are not yet ready should not attempt to register again during the mop-up exercise otherwise, the system will consider it as fraud,” he explained.

He also stated that the mop-up exercise will begin tomorrow, June 18 and ends mid-September this year.

The recent development casts more doubts on the use of Ghana Cards in the upcoming voters' registration exercise.

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The parliament of Ghana after a vote, had given greenlight to the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters’ register with Ghana Cards and Passports as a form of identification.

Out of the 198 MPs who were present in the Chamber, 106 from the Majority side voted in favour of the EC’s Constitutional Instrument (C.I. 126) which will allow for the new arrangement. 92 Minority members voted against it.

The Ghana Card registration has been heavily criticized the opposition National Democratic Congress as a "wasteful" use of the country's resources.

Its use for the upcoming voter register compilation has not augered well with the opposition who have alleged that, the NIA were conniving with the EC to disenfranchise eligible voters' in favour of the NPP government.

These allegations has however been dismissed by the NIA boss.