Amend National ID Law - NDC

National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Kofi Adams has said his party wants Act 950 amended.

Act 950, known as the National Identification Amendment Law 2017, is what empowers the issuance of new identity cards to Ghanaians by the National Identification Authority (NIA).

The new card, to be called Ghana Card, was scheduled to be issued from Monday, May 28 but the planned exercise was indefinitely called off.

The supervising body, the NIA, has since apologised for the inability to fulfil its announcement.

But concerns have already been raised about the documents to present before registering.

Only birth certificates and passports would be accepted for the registration as per the National Identification Law.

Mr Adams said the NDC is calling for a review of the Law to have voters ID cards included in required documents for registration.

He explained that from the checks of his party only seven million of Ghana's total population have birth certificates which contrasts with the 16 million Ghanaians registered as voters.

Mr Adams noted that it would have been easier for the NIA to accept voters' ID cards since that would get them more than half of their targeted number of 30 million Ghanaians.

He said the required documents for the registration - as stipulated by Act 950 - come with costs and not many Ghanaians can afford it.

Mr Adams observed that since citizenship is a right, every adult of 18 years and over, and proven Ghanaian, must have a voters' ID.

He said the voters' ID needs to be accepted, and the provisions in the Act would have to be amended to have it backed by law. -3news.com

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