After the Supreme Court’s ruling on May 5, 2016 asking the Electoral Commission (EC) to with immediate effect delete the names of NHIS registrants from the current register, the EC per a statement issued and signed by Georgina Opoku Amankwaa, Deputy Chair, Corporate Services on Friday July 8 said: “The Electoral Commission welcomes the specific directives given by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 5, 2016, regarding those, who registered as voters in 2012 using the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards as evidence of their citizenship.â€
It further stated: “The court was very clear in stating that its order supersedes the relevant provisions of the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2016 (C.I 91).
“This essentially means the commission is now empowered to delete such names while ensuring that they are not disenfranchised. The Commission welcomes this new development, which will help the EC and all stakeholders to ensure a clean and credible register ahead of the electionsâ€.
“The commission is taking appropriate steps to comply with the court’s directives and would make same public in the coming week.
“The announcement next week will also outline the modalities for the exhibition of the 2016 Provisional Voters Register, which is scheduled to start on 18th of July, 2016 in all polling/exhibition centres across the country.â€
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Abu Ramadan of the People’s National Convention had sought clarity from the apex court regarding persons who registered on the electoral roll with National Health Insurance cards (NHIS) given the easy manner anyone could obtain an the cards and use as national identification for which the court ruled 56,000 names be struck out.