The Electoral Commission (EC) says it is taking appropriate steps to comply with the Supreme Court directive to delete the names of all 56,739 NHIS card bearers whose names are captured in the electoral roll from it.
The commission, in a statement said, “The Electoral Commission welcomes the specific directives by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 5, 2016 regarding those who registered as voters in 2012 using the National Health Scheme (NHIS) card as evidence of their citizenship.
“The Commission is taking the appropriate steps to comply with the Court’s directives and would make same public in the coming weeks.”
The Supreme Court on July 5, 2016, ordered the EC to immediately delete the over 56,000 names of NHIS card bearers from the current provisional voter register.
The court added further that these persons should thereafter be given the opportunity to re-register after establishing that they are Ghanaian citizens, who are 18 years and above and of sound mind; to enable them to take part in the 2016 general election.
The order was made after an application filed before the Supreme Court by former national youth organizer of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Abu Ramadan and one Evans Nimako, who were challenging the credibility of the register.
The court was very clear in stating that its order supersedes the relevant provisions of the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2016 (C.I. 91).
Georgina Opoku Amankwaa, EC deputy chair, Corporate Services, in the statement said, “The Commission welcomes this new development which will help the EC and all stakeholders to ensure a clean and credible register ahead of the elections.”
She said the announcement next week will also outline the modalities for the exhibition of the 2016 provisional voter register which is scheduled to start on July 18, 2016 at all polling/exhibition centres across the country.
By Cephas Larbi