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27.05.2016 Headlines

We ordered EC to delete NHIS card holders –Dotse

By Ghanaian Chronicle
We ordered EC to delete NHIS card holders –Dotse
27.05.2016 LISTEN

By Maame Agyeiwaa Agyei([email protected])

 
A  Supreme Court judge and a member of the panel that sat on the famous Abu Ramadan versus  Electoral Commission (EC) case, Justice Jones Mawulorm  Dotse has stated clearly that, their ruling on the controversial case was for the EC to delete names of all those who used the National Health Insurance Scheme card to register.

According to him, the use of the NHIS cards is unconstitutional because the criteria used could give any one resident in Ghana the opportunity to register, which should not be so.

He said: “I don't want to interpret the judgment but as you claim you heard it, the Supreme Court was quite forthright and clear that, the use of the NHIS cards is unconstitutional, the criteria for the NHIS cards was not based on Ghanaian citizenship but only on residents in Ghana, so any foreigner who is resident in Ghana for six months and more can register under NHIS cards, that was the basis upon our decision in 2014.

“And the recent one we said the use of the NHIS is, therefore, unconstitutional. They (EC) should take the opportunity to clean the register of those undesirable persons. We also did not want to disenfranchise anybody so the Supreme Court went on to say that anybody who will be affected by that exercise must be given the opportunity to register, according to the law and constitution”.

When asked to comment on the stance of the EC, he said, “As I said I don't want to interpret the judgement, if anybody is aggrieved then they should come back to the court.”

Justice Dotse said this during an interaction with the press at a day's training workshop for selected Magistrates, Circuit and High court judges on the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 91 at the Court Complex in Accra yesterday.

The highest court of the land, the Supreme Court (SC), on May 5, 2016, gave a ruling ordering the EC to delete names of all NHIS card holders. It also tasked it to remove the names of all other ineligible persons including the names of deceased persons in order to have a credible voters register.

Although the SC did not declare the entire register inappropriate for the upcoming elections, as the applicants were seeking, it was clear that the EC should take immediate steps to clean the voters register.

This ruling has, however, generated a lot of controversies. The EC through a press statement insisted that the SC ruling did not instruct them to delete the names of NHIS holders who used it as the proof of their Ghanaian identity, ahead of the November polls.

The EC said upon perusing the ruling, their understanding does not also suggest the use of any new process to delete the names of those who registered with NHIS cards, other than the existing processes for removing ineligible voters.

But the SC, for the first time after issuing the judgement, a panel member has affirmed that, the ruling on May 5 was clear that all “names of undesirable persons” must be deleted.

Giving the opening remarks at the programme organized by the UK aid, Judicial Training Institute (JTI) and DFID under the theme; “Election Adjudication Programme for Ghana's 2016 General Elections towards dispute free election,” Justice Dotse said the training had become necessary because new judges have been engaged since 2012 elections.

He added that, the CI 91 is different from the previous one and every offence has its corresponding punishment and that, the training would take the judges through all that, to equip them in delivering election related issues.

Justice Dotse pointed out that, the position of the judges under the CI 91 is sensitive and urged them to be fair, firm and consistent when such cases come before them.

Justice Sulley Gbadegbe, also a Supreme Court judge, on his part said election related issues are time bound and so they should expedite action.

He also urged them not to throw away cases based on technicalities but determine them based on merit.

In all, twenty-three (23) judges and magistrates were gathered at the Law Court Complex to undergo the training.

Brief Background
The former National Youth Organizer of the People's National Convention, Abu Ramadan and one other, Evans Nimako, proceeded to the highest court of the land to seek among other reliefs that  the current voters register be declared inappropriate for the November 7 polls, a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of Article 45(a) of the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, the mandate of the Electoral Commission of Ghana to compile the register of the voters implies a duty to compile, fair and transparent register.

Also a declaration that the 2012 Voters Register, which contains the names of persons who have not established qualification to be registered is inconsistent with Article 42 and 45 (a) and, therefore, unconstitutionally null, void and of no effect.

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