EC ‘cooked up’ names of ‘NHIS registrants’ – LMVCA

Pro opposition group, Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) has said there are some discrepancies in the list of 56,000 names presented by the Electoral Commission (EC) to the Supreme Court as the full list of Ghanaians who used National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards as proof of citizenship to register ahead of the 2012 elections.

The Commission, on Thursday published the list of deleted names as ordered by the Court but the group believes the Commission has submitted a wrong list.

Speaking to Citi News, the Convenor of LMVCA, David Asante alleged that the EC conjured the names.

“For us in Let My Vote Count Alliance we still hold it and the position is that the Electoral Commission could not have produced a list or they will produce a document and present it to the court and the plaintiffs.

As it stands now, the Electoral Commission has managed to take 56,000 names and false corresponding National Health Insurance card numbers and put it in front of those names.”

“The Electoral Commission has constantly maintained a deceptive posture. The 56,000 names were cooked by the Electoral Commission. They never existed on the electoral register. No wonder some of them are car numbers, telephone numbers and even house numbers. That is how bad the situation is.”

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.”

We’ll delete ‘NHIS voters’ not captured on court’s list

The Commission has also promised to delete names of other NHIS registrants whose names were not captured on the list of 56,000 presented to the Supreme Court.

Mr. Tettey told the press that “any other NHIS card registrant who is found apart from the list which was presented by the Supreme Court will also be deleted.”

Citifmonline