56,772 ‘NHIS Voters’ to Re-Register from Monday July 18

From Monday, July 18 to Thursday, July 28, this year, people whose names have been deleted from the electoral roll because they used National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards as a form of identity to register will have the opportunity to re-register.
The Electoral Commission (EC) on Wednesday outlined modalities for the re-registration of 56,772 people who were affected by its decision to comply with the orders of the Supreme Court, following a suit filed by a former National Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Mr Abu Ramadan, and Mr Evans Nimako.
As part of the modalities, the EC will publish the names of all the 56,772 NHIS registrants whose names were deleted in line with the orders of the Supreme Court in the national dailies on Friday, July 15, 2016.
Additionally, the commission will publish the list of the deleted names on its website and at its district offices and the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the country.
The exhibition exercise for the provisional voters register will also begin from July 18 to August 7, this year.
At a news conference in Accra yesterday, the Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Mr Samuel Tetteh, said the commission had decided to increase the number of days for the exhibition from the usual 10 to 21.
That, he explained, was to ensure that all eligible voters had enough time to correct any errors pertaining to their names and also afford the opportunity to people who had knowledge of persons who registered using NHIS cards to inform the EC to delete those names.
The exercise, he said, would take place in all the 29,000 polling stations across the country. “It will also offer voters the opportunity to know where their polling stations are,” he added.
The Supreme Court, in its judgement on May 5, 2016, ordered the EC to take immediate steps to delete the names of persons not qualified to be on the voters register. They included minors, those who registered with NHIS cards and the deceased.
Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako, who were the original plaintiffs in the suit that led to the judgement, filed the application seeking clarification and further direction on the judgement.
In view of the application, the Supreme Court ordered the EC to furnish it with the names of persons on the electoral roll who registered with NHIS cards and how the commission intended to comply with the May 5 judgement.
The EC complied with the court’s orders and presented names of the people to the court, which subsequently ordered the commission to delete same from the electoral roll.
Touching on the modalities concerning the re-registration, Mr Tetteh said all persons whose names would appear in the national dailies would have to report at the district offices of the EC and prove their eligibility before they could be re-registered.
“They will go through the normal process of registration. You must be a citizen of Ghana, 18 years and also have an old existing ID card. You can also bring a passport or two guarantors,” he said.
“Any other NHIS card registrant who is found aside the list which was presented to the Supreme Court will also be deleted,” he added.
He said the EC deleted the names of NHIS registrants only after it had satisfied itself that those persons had registered with NHIS cards.
The EC maintained that it was ready to conduct the general election on November 7, this year as had been proposed.