The Electoral Commission (EC) has decided to resume the re-registration of deleted NHIS registrants from Friday, August 5 to August 12 despite stating otherwise earlier.
The EC has also said there will be a further opportunity for the deleted registrants to re-register on August 19 and 26 during the continuous registration exercise.
[contextly_sidebar id=”cA7FvAp9CR1AbyXugoJuQNfFJRs0oE2B”]This was revealed in an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting where Citi News’ Sixtus Dong Ullo was in attendance.
Did the EC succumb to pressure?
It is unclear as yet if the EC was bowing to pressure from the various stakeholders who purported that its initial decision not to extend the re-registration was unconstitutional as it would result in a significant number of people being disenfranchised.
The MP for the Effutu Constituency, Alex Afenyo Markin, and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti Region, for instance, had petitioned EC to extend the re-registration period over disenfranchisement fears.
Afenyo Markin, explained that as part of the Supreme Court order to delete NHIS registrants from the voters’ register, in order not violate their fundamental electoral rights, the EC was to give adequate notice to those affected by processes of deletion and re-register them.
The concerns notwithstanding, the EC had maintained that it would not extend the deadline for the re-registration exercise despite revealing only 24, 287 of the deleted NHIS registrants, were re-registered during the previous 10-day exercise.
Initial reasons for non-extension
Last week, the Commission’s Communications Director, Eric Dzakpasu, explained that “there is no evidence that when an extension is granted, the remaining people will come out of their houses or communities to get their name re-registered.”
Mr. Dzakpasu also explained that, the EC was “required by law to exhibit the provisional register of the persons re-registered” and it would need time to process the data captured hence their initial decision to stand behind the non-extension of the re-registration period.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citfmonline.com/Ghana