The Electoral Commission has strongly defended the authenticity of the published list of voters who registered with the National Health Insurance cards.
The Commission in compliance with a Supreme Court order deleted and published more than 56,000 names of persons who registered with the NHIS cards.
[contextly_sidebar id=”fs9GUfiRr7nk4wZTuQrWT92osd0HPAuv”]But pro opposition group, Let My Vote Count Alliance has described the list as fake, citing what they term as discrepancies in the list.
Speaking on Citi FM ‘s news analysis programme, The Big Issue, the Public Relations Officer of the EC, Eric Dzakpasu insisted the EC followed due process.
“We have exhausted our procedures and we have come out with the people on the register and that is the people we have deleted. All that we are saying is we are in control of the data. If you registered with the NHIS and your name is not there, the appropriate place to come is the Electoral Commission.”
Background
The Commission on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 announced that it had already deleted the names in compliance with the court’s order and will give the affected persons the opportunity to re-register on Monday [July 18, 2016] if they are able to prove their Ghanaian citizenship.
It subsequently released the list of some 56,772 persons whose names were captured on the electoral roll on Thursday.
Ghana’s apex court as part of the ruling on July 5, also asked the Commission to ensure that such persons are not disenfranchised, but are properly re-registered.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, the Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Samuel Tettey, said the re-registration exercise will last for ten days.
Exhibition exercise also starts on July 18
The Commission has also announced that its exhibition exercise will start from July 18 to August 7.
“The date for the exhibition is slated for Monday 18 of July 2016, to 2nd August. This year’s exhibition exercise is a bit different from the previous ones for some reason. In other words, this particular exhibition exercise is characterized by three main innovations. First of all, the Commission has decided to extend the 10 to 14 days that we normally use for the exhibition exercise to 21 days,” he said.
Mr. Tettey further stated that, the exercise is relevant because it “offers voters an opportunity to know where their polling station is.”
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana