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24.07.2016 Press Statement

LMVCA Challenges Fraudulent Ec NHIS List, Calls For Vigilance During The Exhibition

24.07.2016 LISTEN
By LMVCA

The Electoral Commission (EC) has commenced a twenty-one day exhibition of the voters’ register from Monday, July 18, 2016 to Sunday, August 7, 2016. Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) wishes to use this medium to urge all registered voters to participate in this exercise to confirm that their names and details are on the voter register. Running concurrently with the exhibition exercise, from 18th – 28th July 2016, is the re-registration of persons whose names are reported to have been deleted from the voters’ register in compliance with the Supreme Court order to the EC to delete the names of persons who registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Card.

LMVCA is shocked at the deceitful actions of the EC in fabricating the list of 56,772 names of persons who supposedly registered with NHIS Cards in 2012. The extent of the anomalies and inconsistencies in the list submitted to the Supreme Court by the EC is such that the credibility of the EC has been largely compromised.

During the press conference held on 6th June, 2016, LMVCA was emphatic that the EC could not produce the list of persons who registered with the NHIS card because the “Form 1 A” used in 2012 did not make provision for the type of identification card used for registration to be indicated on the form. LMVCA stated further that any such list provided by the EC would be spurious and should therefore be rejected by Ghanaians as such.

The EC insisted that it did, actually, have the data of persons who registered with NHIS cards in 2012. Yet, in an affront to all Ghanaians, the EC submitted a list with a negligible number of 56,772 persons as representing the full list of those who registered with NHIS cards in 2012. This list represents a mere 0.404% of the total 14,031,793 in the 2012 voters register and 0.6% of the total number of 9,000,000 NHIS card holders. In clarifying its judgment of 5th May, 2016, the Supreme Court ordered the EC to delete the names of the 56,772 on the list submitted to the court. The Court, in admitting that the list presented by the EC was incomplete, also ordered the EC to delete the names of all other persons who registered with the NHIS card.

LMVCA also wishes to remind the EC that its chairperson, Madam Charlotte Osei, informed Ghanaians that the EC would remove the names of 600,000 dead persons and over 200,000 multiple registrants (identified by the VCRAC Crabbe Committee) from the voters register during the exhibition of the voters register.

The EC announced last week that it had deleted the names of the 56,772 persons it presented to the Supreme Court. The EC announced further that the re-registering of all such persons who showed evidence of their eligibility to vote, would take place from 18th to 28th July 2016.

LMVCA maintains that the list submitted by the EC was fabricated cooked and forged. Indeed the glaring discrepancies in the list prove that the EC can not be credible. Anomalies in the list include over 200 cases of duplicate Voter ID numbers, over 700 cases of duplicate NHIS card numbers, 350 cases of names without corresponding NHIS numbers, over 4,000 cases of incorrect NHIS numbers, over 5,000 cases of incorrect Voter ID numbers, among others. These discrepancies are so significant that they cannot merely be overlooked as an oversight. Indeed, these inconsistencies could potentially disenfranchise unsuspecting eligible voters, thereby creating mayhem on election day.

Only days after the publication of the list of persons whose names are reported to have been deleted from the voters’ register, hundreds of cases of misrepresentation have already emerged. Persons who have never owned NHIS card have had their names deleted as using NHIS card to register in 2012 registration, deleted names of supposed NHIS card registrants never found in the original voters register of 2012, thousands of persons who registered with NHIS card in 2012 but haven't found their names in the list of deleted names provided by the EC, the EC may be preparing us for chaos if these are not checked.

LMVCA contends that the EC is taking advantage of the ruling of the Supreme Court to register persons who were never on the voter’s register. We therefore call on all polling station and constituency executives of the various political parties to be vigilant at the District Offices of the EC during the re-registration exercise. Before re-registration, it should be firmly established that the person(s) was indeed on the 2012 voters register.

As the constitutionally mandated body in charge of elections, and the sole custodian of the source document for voter registration, the Charlotte Osei-led EC has demonstrated that it cannot be trusted. It told a lie to the apex court, forged a list of NHIS registrants, and proceeded to delete names, which never existed in the electoral roll with corresponding faked NHIS card numbers.

LMVCA is carefully monitoring the ongoing voters' register exhibition exercise as a critical step in cleaning the register to ensure credible elections. However, in a total disregard for the recommendations of the Electoral Reforms Committee and the VCRAC Crabbe Panel, the EC has failed the test of transparency in the recruitment of officers for the exhibition exercise.

LMVCA is concerned at the lack of professionalism exhibited by some officers who inquire about the political affiliation of registered voters who go to check if their names are in the register. In several places LMVCA visited in the Northern, Greater Accra and Eastern regions it was obvious that sympathisers of a particular party were deliberately recruited for the exercise. This is a dangerous precursor for the recruitment for election officers for election day where over 150,000 temporary staff are expected to be recruited. It appears that the EC has gone ahead on the blind side of the political parties at IPAC to do selective recruitment of National Service personnel to serve as election officers. This situation where members of one political party are targeted for recruitment as EC officials demonstrates that the EC is more interested in recruiting party polling agents than election officers.

As a civil society group committed to preserving the integrity of the electoral process, LMVCA will not relent in its efforts to ensure clean and credible elections. We will monitor the ongoing voter register exhibition and re-registration exercises in all the 29,000 polling stations and district offices nationwide. We therefore charge all registered Ghanaians to be vigilant and to be actively involved in these exercises.

Thank you.
PRESS STATEMENT
Thursday, July 21, 2016
LMVCA CHALLENGES FRAUDULENT EC NHIS LIST, CALLS FOR

VIGILANCE DURING THE EXHIBITION

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