Calls for the Electoral Commission (EC) to extend the re-registration exercise for the deleted National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) registrants in the voters' register have been shot down.
The Commission says it will not extend the date for the exercise despite re-registering less than half of the total number of registrants.
The re-registration exercise for NHIS registrants which ended Thursday following a 10-day grace period saw 24, 287 of the deleted NHIS registrants, being registered  out of t the over 56000 deleted registrants following a Supreme Court order.
But Speaking to the press Friday, the EC's Communications Director, Eric Dzakpasu said there was no need to extend the exercise even though turnout was very low.
He said "there is no evidence that when an extension is granted, the remaining people will come out of their houses or communities to get their names re-registered" adding that  “In the considered opinion of the commission, the registration exercise could not be extended".
According to Mr. Dzakpasu, the EC is “required by law to exhibit the provisional register of the persons re-registered†and it would need time to process the data captured hence the non-extension of the re-registration period".
“It necessarily follows that the data captured must be processed. This means we would require some time to be able to do that in order to be in the position to exhibit the provisional register for the registrants from the fifth to eight August 2016 as agreed at the IPAC.", he added.
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