In the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling directing the Electoral Commission [EC] to clean the register and remove all names which were registered using the National Health Insurance cards, the EC has said it will respect the directive from the court.
This was contained in a statement signed by the EC’s Deputy Chairman (Operations) Amadu Sulley.
The EC however clarified that prior to the judgment, “the Commission had discussed the roadmap for cleaning the register with the political parties at the Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting held on Friday March 18, 2016.”
On the specific matter of voters who registered with National Health Insurance Cards, “it will make its views on the matter known in due course.”
Those who registered using these cards, did so before the 2012 general elections under CI 72, which allowed them, under the law to register with those cards.
The EC in the statement said it is studying the judgement and its implications on the audit mechanisms it had earlier planned to clean the register.
It is unclear yet, the number of voters who registered with the National Health Insurance cards but the Supreme Court described the current state of the electoral roll as “reasonably inaccurate,” barely six months to a major presidential and parliamentary elections in November. . The EC said it has taken note of the court’s orders regarding the cleaning of the existing Biometric Voters Register and assured the general public that;
1. That the audit process as outlined by the Commission, was inclusive, transparent, and within the remit of the law.
2. That the audit of the Biometric Voter’s Register will take place during the scheduled exhibition period after the limited Voter Registration exercise.
3. That the audit will involve removal of deceased registered voters, removal of multiple registrations (with the help of the AFIS software), removal of alleged minors and non-Ghanaians based on the production of evidence.
4. That in accordance with the provisions of C.I. 91, Registered Voters will be given the opportunity to verify their registration details at all polling centres nationwide. 5. That the Commission will use the Biometric Verification devices during the exhibition period for verification of registered voters. The EC said it acknowledges that the credibility of the elections, depends on a clean voters’ register and will therefore take steps, “in line with existing law to ensure that the final register is clean and credible before the general elections on November 7.”
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