Leader of the Progressive People\u2019s Party (PPP), Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, has reiterated his call for a reliable and coordinated national identification database to help the country to among others, address the challenges it faces with the voters\u2019 register ahead of almost every election.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court in a recent ruling <\/a><\/strong><\/span>presided over by Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood, ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to take immediate steps to clean the current voters\u2019 register by expunging names of persons who registered using the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards.<\/p>\n The court also ordered the EC to delete names of deceased persons as well as ineligible persons whose names are on the register. While asking the EC to delete the names of those who registered with the NHIS cards, the court also asked the commission to allow such persons to re-register using the right procedure.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”lw8rdB0jNOJISIe7ZnJUrUy4PHJNBU2K”]The ruling follows a suit filed by a former National Youth Organizer of the People\u2019s National Convention (PNC), Abu Ramadan, and one Evans Nimako. The two among other reliefs, wanted the current register declared inappropriate for the November polls.<\/p>\n Following the disagreement over the use of the NHIS card, there have been calls for a proper national identification system to deal with some of these bottlenecks with registration.<\/p>\n The Progressive People\u2019s Party\u2019s leader in a statement said the National Identification Authority (NIA), must be resourced to complete the job it started to register all Ghanaians.<\/p>\n The party in the statement said \u201cthe Supreme Court stated clearly that the voters’ register in its current form is not accurate. The Court ordered the Electoral Commission to delete from the electoral roll names of all dead people and persons who used the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to register to vote. But the Court also ordered the EC to allow those who used the NHIS card as proof of citizenship to register, an opportunity to register if they qualify.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDoes this give us cause to celebrate? Absoluteply not. We have not hit the fundamental point yet. We must accept to adequately fund the National Identification Authority to complete the job it started to register all Ghanaians. With this national database of citizens and the resultant National ID Card, we can arrive at a good voters’ register. Anything else will be a job partially done, one prone to unnecessary conflict.\u201d
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\nBy: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nFollow @AfanyiDadzie<\/a>
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