EC deletes names of NHIS registrants from register

The Electoral Commission (EC) says it has successfully deleted names of over 56,000 National Health Insurance registrants on the electoral roll.

The names of the deleted persons will be published in the dailies and at the various district EC offices in order for the affected persons to go and re-register on the 18 of July 2016.

These were revealed by the EC, Tuesday at an Inter Party Advisory Committee.
The deletion of the 56,772 NHIS registrants is in compliance to an order by the Supreme Court following petition by the People National Convention’s Abu Ramadan and one Evans Nimako.

The petitioners argued the credibility of the voters register remains compromised with the names of NHIS card holders on it.

Not all NHIS card holders are Ghanaians but the voter’s register is exclusively reserved for citizens and there is a possibility some of the NHIS card holders on the register are non-Ghanaians.

The judges agreed with the arguments of the petitioners and ordered the EC to delete names of 56,772 NHIS card holders contained in a list provided by the EC as well as others who registered with the NHIS cards but whose names are not in the list the EC presented to the Supreme Court.

At an IPAC meeting, Tuesday, the EC announced that it has complied with the order of the Supreme Court and also indicated that the deleted persons will be given the opportunity to re-register with the right identity cards beginning July 18.

Joy News’ Favour Nunoo who followed the IPAC meeting reported that the representatives of the parties are happy with the deletion.
They, however, raised issues about the potential to disenfranchise the registrants.

Some of the party reps argued not all the affected persons may have access to the newspaper to check their names or have money to go to the district offices and that will go against them.

But the EC in a response also suggested the register will be opened on the 18 of July for all Ghanaians to check if their names are in the register. The affected NHIS card holders can take advantage of the opening and check if their names are on the register or not.

Myjoyonline.com