It has now emerged that the planned biometric registration of members of the National Democratic Congress is aimed at merging the biometric register of the EC to that of the NDC�s with the aim of corrupting the process for the 2016 general elections.
Underground meetings between the ruling party and the top hierarchy of the EC have already been held in recent weeks, specifically about how to transfer voter information to NDC�s so called Biometric Database. The party has already issued out membership application forms to party members to provide their data for the so called biometric registration. Strangely the party biometric data collection form is asking members who wants to register for new NDC biometric cards to provide them with their Electoral Commission voter ID Card number which was used in the 2012 general election as well as the polling station code, the region and the district they registered. With this information on it will make it easy for the NDC to illegally tap into the EC data base and steal information about registered voters for their own selfish agenda. According to the source, at the last meeting held between the two parties, it was agreed that the NDC�s biometric register should employe the same format as that of the Electoral Commission.
This is, the view of the EC and NDC officials gathered, will be the first step in ensuring the merger of the two registers in time for the December 2016 updated register. The Bio-Metric Database Implementation Committee, under the chairmanship of Mr. Ofosu Ampofo, is facing financial challenges and this is evident by their inability to even train agents to supervise the process in the regions. The source further estimated that the cost of the membership registration exercise is put at eight million dollars but it is unclear how the NDC was going to fund this multi-million dollars project.
Separate intelligence picked up by the paper suggests that the entire membership registration exercise would itself be bloated, feeding directly on EC data in the Volta Region and other selected areas, including in the Ashanti Region, to �establish straight away that the NDC has the numbers.�
The EC sources said membership registration exercise is an attempt to prepare a separate biometric register that would be used to create a platform to rig the election in 2016.
At a press conference last year to announce the new reforms the General Secretary of the party Johnson Asiedu Nketia said, �as mass social democratic party, the National Democratic Congress is taking steps to ensure that political power and decision � making evolve from their rank and file.� In pursuit of this objective, the National Executive Committee (NEEC) of the party working is towards scrapping the Electoral Colleague completely and implementing a universal membership suffrage. This will ensure that every card � bearing member of good standing will have the opportunity to participate in the selection of the party�s candidates by voting directly in their respective polling stations where they are members.
�If we are able to get the reforms through, we will have addressed the challenges associated with the existing Electoral College system in a more comprehensive manner; we are not expanding the Electoral College but we are scrapping it.
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