Peter Mac Manu

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has lauded the Electoral Commission (EC) for taking steps to purge the electoral roll off illegal registrants ahead of the November 2016 polls.

Campaign Manager of the party, Peter Mac Manu, says EC’s deletion of the 56,772 National Health Insurance card holders from the electoral and the steps it has put in place to solicit other names from the public are welcoming.

“The EC is doing the right thing in conformity with the C.I 91,” he said.

The Constitutional Instrument (C.I) 91 was passed by Ghana’s legislature on March 17 to regulate the 2016 general elections. It revoked C.I 72 which was the Public Election Regulations 2012.

The instrument outlaws the use of NHI cards as a form of identification for anyone who wants to be registered as a voter following Supreme Court (SC)’s ruling in a suit filed by former National Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako asking for the compilation of a new voters’ register.

The opposition NPP has taken the blame for hounding the EC and challenging the credibility of the nation’s electoral roll.

Pro-NPP groups such as Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) among others have organised series of demonstrations across the country to register their displeasure over the electoral roll.

The EC on Tuesday announced it has deleted 56,772 names of NHIS registrants from the register in compliance with SC’s ruling on May 5 in the suit filed by PNC’s Abu Ramadan in which the court ordered the Commission to delete names of NHIS registrants.

It has promised to publish the deleted names in national dailies and on notice boards of the Commission’s various regional offices for the re-registration on July 18.

This news did not please lawyer for the plaintiffs, Frank Davies who has suggested the EC could do more.

Opposition political parties including the NPP asked the EC to go beyond the names has deleted.

In a surprise move, the Commission has invited persons who have knowledge about some NHI registrants whose names were not deleted to make the information available to its officers for onward deletion.

Even though the NPP believes the EC has now taken the right steps to correct most of the wrongs in the register, it feels more could be done to safeguard the credibility of the 2016 elections.

“Because the Supreme Court ordered that the 56,000 plus names be deleted and the people are given the opportunity to re-register for me and for the NPP it is work in progress,” Mr Manu told Joynews.

He said the NPP’s position on the current state of the voters’ register after the deletion exercise would be communicated to the public in due time.