Protecting Integrity Of Polls Necessary

We doff our hats for the People's National Convention (PNC) for delving into the Ghana Card as the sole prerequisite for registration onto the voters' roll.

With two years away from the next elections and the Ghana Card acquisition ongoing, those expressing apprehension about the inability of many citizens to acquire the citizenship document must be suffering from a certain form of anxiety neurosis.

The reason such persons are on this tangent is because they are used to relying on foreigners from neighbouring countries, hence their unnecessary apprehension.

The PNC General Secretary, Janet Asana Nabila, did not mince words when she pointed at an unnecessary tension being created by the NDC over a so-called disenfranchisement.

Why would the Electoral Commission (EC) want to disenfranchise some Ghanaians? Only the NDC can proffer an answer to this question because it is the only grouping which is enduring this phobia for anything about elections.

There is a lot to gain from protecting the integrity of the electoral process in this country and other democracies.

It is for the protection of this that there should be no loose ends in the matter of the electoral process which includes   ensuring that no Togolese or Ivorian, or even Nigerian votes, for our political leadership.

We wish to point out once more that the security and financial dividends to be derived from the continuous process of acquiring voter's card cannot be overemphasised.

The broken limbs and even fatalities associated with the voter registration exercise, the ritual preceding elections in the country are well known. Efforts, therefore, at obviating this hassle and security challenges through a continuous process, is something which should be welcomed and not vilified as the NDC is seeking to do.

The issue of the Ghana Card, as the sole prerequisite for voter registration, is not a thing from the moon but something decided upon even before the current leadership at EC occupied the helm of the election management entity.

Why must the NDC be jittery anytime innovations or changes are mentioned and even worked at?

Perhaps had the other side of the political aisle not insisted that the opaque ballot boxes be replaced by transparent ones, and even pictures to be features of voter identification cards even as the NDC screamed 'foul', we would have still been on that antiquated template.

The next elections should be an advancement over the previous one and what better way to achieve this than that ensuring that only Ghanaians vote in our elections.