The Electoral Commission has disclosed that persons complaining that their names are not on the voters register are persons whose names were deleted because they used the National Health Insurance Insurance (NHIS) as form proof of identification.
Addressing the press on Wednesday, the Director of Electoral services, Samuel Tettey said they cannot be blamed for the missing names because such persons were given enough opportunity to have their names recaptured onto the electoral roll.
“We have received reports of some voters whose names are not in the register and they claim that they were deleted as part of the NHIS registrants. We all remember the Supreme Court's order that all names registered using the NHIS cards should be deleted so all affected person were given two opportunities to register.”
“Some registered during the continuous voter registration exercise and they could have also taken the advantage of the exhibition period to get their names included on the voters register. So those people were given very good opportunities to have their names back on the register, unfortunately they did not do that and the basic principle is that once your name is not on the register you cannot exercise your franchise,” Mr. Tettey added.
Background
The Supreme Court on July 5, 2016 ordered the EC to delete persons who register using the NHIS card to proof their citizenship.
The order was made in case in which former National Youth Organiser of the People's National Convention [now member of the opposition New Patriotic Party], Abu Ramadan and one Evans Nimako challenged the credibility of the electoral roll for the 2016 general elections.
About 56,772 names were deleted in the process. The commission opened a ten day window for such persons to be re-registered after which the exercise was extended following several appeals from the opposition New Patriotic Party.
However, the Electoral Commission revealed, it successfully re-registered 22,107 after the exercise.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin
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