{"id":230825,"date":"2016-07-14T06:05:44","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T06:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=230825"},"modified":"2016-07-14T06:05:44","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T06:05:44","slug":"ec-shouldve-published-nhis-list-before-deleting-john-boadu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/07\/ec-shouldve-published-nhis-list-before-deleting-john-boadu\/","title":{"rendered":"EC should\u2019ve published NHIS list before deletion – John Boadu"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Acting General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, has rebuked the Electoral Commission for deleting names of persons who registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme cards as proof of citizenship without first publishing the list.<\/p>\n

John Boadu argued that, the process may create uncertainties going into the polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would have thought that before the Electoral Commission goes ahead in deleting the names of the 56,172, they would have published the names first for people\u2026but all that we heard was that they\u2019ve already deleted the names,\u201d he said\u00a0on Eyewitness News<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"John
John Boadu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”VRqb7lwGZb5vX3u5a9ZMF6y8JoSr7lG9″]\u201cSo as we speak now, all the over 14 million people on the register are suspects, unless you are very sure that you did not register with an NHIS card. And the way it was done, you can\u2019t also be sure because there are reports of people who registered with some other cards but their names were included so it\u2019s made things very difficult and the fear that people are having is very real.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EC was ordered by the Supreme Court<\/strong><\/a><\/span> on May 5 2016, to delete the 56,000 names on the register and also give them the opportunity to re-register if they are able to proof their citizenship.<\/p>\n

The commission however announced on Tuesday that it has complied with the ruling and will publish the names of the affected persons in the national dailies as well as district electoral offices.<\/p>\n

It also said it will begin the re-registration process on Monday, July 18, 2016.\u00a0But John Boadu believes such an action by the EC was not entirely fair to the electorate.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing to be recognized is that the deletion of the names was done at the main data base, the provisional register had already been printed. What the Electoral Commission is telling us is that, they will mark those names with red marks. So if you check at the polling station and your name has been marked with red mark, it means that you have been deleted,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Despite his concerns, Mr. Boadu said the NPP largely understands the approach the Commission has had to adopt due to the time constraints, and expressed optimism that the election would be conducted smoothly.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nFollow @AlloteyGodwin<\/a>
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