The Central Regional Director of Electoral Commission (EC) Philomena Adusei has disputed a story published on myjoyonline.com which says that angry residents of Cape Coast on Monday surrounded the EC office threatening to halt the ongoing exercise to register National Health Insurance (NHIS) registrants whose names were deleted.
According to the report, the angry mob accused EC of trying to disenfranchise them by deleting their names, a situation which compelled them to besiege the EC office.
She disputed the allegation in an exclusive interview with the DAILY GUIDE on Tuesday at her office in Cape Coast.
Mrs. Adusei stated that not a single person neither angry residents besieged their office to threaten them on the said day.
The Regional Director expressed concern about the way some reporters put up stories which can create fear and panic in the country.
“I do not know where the reporter had that information and never verify from me, am afraid if a media house like Joy FM which most of us have confidence in can come out with this false story, then our country is doomed” she added
“The picture they use does not even resemble our office and I don’t know where they got the picture from,” she said
She challenged the reporter to come out and tell the public the time the incident took place and which security agency or people calm the angry mob down.
Mrs. Adusie hinted that about 14,835 registrants in the region had their names deleted; adding plans were underway to register all of them in the 21 days exercise.
She underscored the need for the affected people to take advantage of the exercise to re-register to enable them cast their vote in the upcoming elections.
The Regional Director added that the exercise was going on smoothly and they had not encountered any problem
The exercise was to enable NHIS registrants whose names were expunged from the electoral roll to re-register in accordance with the Supreme Court order.
The re-registration of the deleted NHIS registrants follows Supreme Court ruling in a suit filed by the former National Youth Organizer of People’s National Convention, Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako in which they challenged the credibility of the electoral roll.
The commission in compliance with the court order entreated people who registered with NHIS cards to re-register.
From Sarah Afful, Cape Coast