Alex Afenyo-Markin
The New Patriotic Parliament (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Effutu in the Central Region, Alex Afenyo-Markin, has petitioned the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei, to extend the date of the re-registration of people who previously registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card and have had their names deleted from the voter register.
The petition, which was sent to the chairperson on Tuesday, July 26, said only 1,770 out of 5,269 voters who were affected by the order of the Supreme Court, had had the opportunity to register, even though the registration exercise would be ending today, July 28.
Disclosing his intention to always fight for his constituents in a press briefing in parliament yesterday, the MP pointed out that about 2,000 of his constituents had complained to him about the limited time for the re-registration as most of them feared they would not have the opportunity to be re-registered and consequently be disenfranchised.
He said those agitated constituents had threatened to take the EC to court if they did not get the opportunity to be registered and vote in the December general election.
“There is a compelling reason to petition your good office to extend the re-registration period for at least 10 more days to enable majority of my constituents whose names have been deleted, to get the opportunity to re-register and vote in the December, 2016 elections,” the Effutu MP said in his petition.
He said the deletion of the names had also affected some of his constituents who had never been in possession of the NHIS card and could not therefore, have registered with it (card).
By Thomas Fosu Jnr