The Electoral Commission (EC) has admitted it is yet to fully comply with a 2016 Supreme Court order to delete from the voters register persons who used the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) card as proof of Identity as Ghanaians.
The Commission explained that it is as a result of how the law that governed registration of voters at the time (C.I 72) was crafted.
This is contained in the EC’s six-point 31-page legal argument to the apex court urging it to allow the exclusion of the current voters’ card as proof of citizenship and voting age.
The Commission urged the apex court to back its decision to exclude the current voters’ ID card as proof of identification for prospective voters.
The EC argues the existing voters’ ID card was acquired by some Ghanaians in a manner that breached various laws.
The Supreme Court on June 4 gave the EC up until June 8 to justify its stance. The credibility of Ghana’s voters register was a thorny issue prior to the 2016 election.
The then opposition alleged the register was bloated insisting it cannot be a credible document showing Ghanaians of voting age.
The Supreme Court in the case of Abu Ramadan and Another v. the Electoral Commission in 2016, held that it was wrong for persons to use the National Health Insurance cards to get onto the Electoral roll.
It, therefore, ordered the EC to delete such persons. The Charlotte Osei led Electoral Commission did indicate that it had complied deleting as many as 56,00 voters.
It later stated it had been able to re-register 52% of the deleted persons. The Commission under the leadership of Jean Mensah in 2020 is now telling the apex court it couldn’t fully comply with the order.
It said this is because the form filled by voters to register did not make provision for the type of document used to prove qualification except for those who used the National Identification Card.
It says the few it was able to identify and delete were actually recordings it’s officers made of their means of qualification contrary to what the form provided.
It adds that it is for this reason that it was unable to furnish the Apex Court with a full list of persons it had elected from the roll.
It admits that majority of the persons who registered as voters in 2012 used insurance card.
It is, therefore, urging the apex court to exclude the existing voters’ ID card as proof in the upcoming exercise since such persons whose qualification is in doubt have the card.
Source: myjoyonline.com
