SC Ruling On NHIS Card 'Dangerous' - Mornah

Bernard Mornah

The National Chairman of the People's National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah, has described the recent Supreme Court order to the Electoral Commission to remove the names of minors and ineligible voters from the electoral roll as a ruling that can open the floodgates to several litigations.

“The ruling is dangerous in my opinion,” he told Prince Minkah, host of the Executive Breakfast Show, on Tuesday May 17, 2016.

A panel of seven judges on Thursday May 5 unanimously indicated that there was the need for a credible register and, thus, asked the EC to remove the names of those who registered with their National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards from the current register and accord them the opportunity to register with the appropriate identification.

But Mr Mornah said implementation of that ruling could be disastrous to the country’s political systems.

According to him: “Those who registered, what offence did they commit? Did they violate any law? No. CI 72 was the law that governed registration in 2012, which allowed registering using NHIS cards.” Therefore, in his opinion, it was no fault of theirs to have their names in the register.

Mornah further indicated that: “In 2008, people used NHIS cards to acquire voters’ ID cards; in 2012 we said if you have an old ID card it could be used as a verifiable card [for the biometric registration] so, people used those cards to acquire a new one. If we are asking the EC to delete names of persons who used NHIS cards [in 2012], you have to extend it to 2008 when people first used it [the NHIS card] to acquire the old voters’ ID card,” which was subsequently used to get the current biometric voters’ identification cards.

“If anybody gets up and goes to court and says that the only source document [that can prove that you are a Ghanaian] is your birth certificate, therefore, anyone who also registered with driver’s licence or any other card is ineligible, if the person wins the court ruling, would we then say that all those who fall victim should also be removed from the voters’ register?” he questioned.

He pointed out that: “By the ruling of the Supreme Court, it is suggesting that there was some fraud in the voters’ register, and, therefore, whatever the [2012] voters’ register was used for is also fraudulent. Therefore, the parliament that we have cannot hold itself [out] to have the legitimacy of the parliament of Ghana from 2013. Also, the president, then, cannot legitimately hold himself [out] as the president from 2013. The reason is that fraudulent cards were used for the register, and, therefore, the register was fraudulent. If something is fraudulent, its outcome will be bogus. So, I can get up and say that because parliament and the president came to office by the votes of ineligible Ghanaian voters, they should be stripped.”