"We'll not accept only EC voters' register - NDC

Accra, March 4, GNA - The National Democratic Party (NDC) on Tuesday declared that it would not accept any voters' register prepared by any other body apart from the Electoral Commission (EC), which was constitutionally mandated to do so.

It said: "Any attempt to appropriate the powers of the EC to another institution would jeopardise the credibility of future elections and would amount to undermining the democratic practices we have all yearned and desired for."

Mr John Mahama, Communications Director of the Party, was speaking to the Ghana News Agency on a contract the government had awarded to a French company to undertake the issuing of National Identification (ID) Card under the auspices of the Ministry of Economic Planning and Regional Integration.

The ID cards to be issued would serve various purposes including the preparation of the voters' register for the 2004 elections, he said.

Mr Mahama suggested that a National ID Department should be set up within the EC to avoid the waste of resources that would arise should a new organisation be established.

"The EC itself is on record to have said that it was not a novice in the issuing of national ID cards because it had started a similar exercise in the 1970s and some of those who undertook that exercise in the Bong Ahafo, Western and Volta Regions were still at post" he said.

Mr Mahama said all the political parties in the country had respect for the EC and "any information on national database that it will prepare can be shared with relevant institutions like the Immigration and the Internal Revenue Services"