The Center of Democracy and Socioeconomic Development - CDS-Africa, is urgently calling for the integration of data between the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Identification Authority (NIA).
This call comes as a result of our observation of the ongoing new voter registration exercise, which is currently in its 14th day at all district EC offices.
While we acknowledge and appreciate the EC's efforts to implement an online voter registration system, which helps minimize the risk of double registration, we are concerned that the absence of data verification with the NIA's database compromises the integrity of the new voter roll, which should ideally benefit from the security provided by the Ghana card.
Our observations reveal that although not many new registrants are using the Ghana Card for identification, the few cards presented are not being cross-checked against the NIA's database.
This situation creates a potential vulnerability, as individuals with malicious intentions could potentially use fake Ghana Cards to gain unauthorized access to the Voter Roll.
We firmly believe that the EC's laudable efforts in digitalization should include real-time verification with the NIA database, similar to the practices in the banking sector.
Despite these concerns, CDS-Africa acknowledges the EC's commendable work in addressing initial system challenges that led to long queues and daily backlogs at registration centers.
