The Vice Chairman of Parliament’s Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, George Loh, is urging the Electoral Commission to engage the Inter Party Advisory Committee(IPAC) on the implementation of the recent Supreme Court order to clean the nation’s voters’ register.
There has been controversy about the meaning of the May 5, 2016 ruling of the apex court, following the EC’s statement claiming that the Supreme Court’s order did not ask it to remove names of voters who registered with the NHIS card prior to the 2012 elections.
[contextly_sidebar id=”1erqlIWZiz4YZ4OOnzoVr9UnKBIbVisV”]The petitioners in the case; Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako have threatened to head back to court to get the EC to comply with the ruling.
But speaking on the Ghana report on Viasat One, Geoge Loh, who’s also the MP for North Dayi, said the EC must reach a consensus on the matter with political parties.
“The parties themselves can sit down and see the best way forward but I’ve always said that IPAC together with the EC can sit down and dialogue and arrive at a consensus in the national interest. I’m sure that after engaging with IPAC they might change their position,” he added.
Background
The Supreme Court on May 5th described the nation’s electoral register as “reasonably inaccurate” barely six months to the election.
The apex court made the statement in its ruling in a case brought before by a former National Youth Organizer of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Abu Ramadan and one Evans Nimako, challenged the credibility of the voters’ register.
The two, who filed the case in December 2015, sought among others a declaration that the 2012 voters’ register which contains the names of persons who have not established qualification to be registered is inconsistent with Article 42 and 45 (a) is unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect.
But the Supreme Court asked the Electoral Commission to expunge from the current voters’ register the names of all persons who registered and voted in the 2012 elections, with the National Health Insurance card as a proof of identity.
But the EC after studying the ruling has said, their understanding of it does not suggest the use of any new process to delete the names of those who registered with NHIS cards, since there are already existing laws for expunging names of ineligible voters from the register.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin