The Electoral Commission of Ghana has decided to resume the re-registration of persons whose names were deleted from the register of voters for using National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards as identification during the voter registration exercise in 2012.
The EC, in compliance with a Supreme Court order, announced a 10-day re-registration exercise. However, at the end of the 10 days, out of the 56,000 names expunged from the register, 34,000 of them could not be re-registered.
This prompted members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to call on the election management body to extend the period of the registration.
After an emergency Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Wednesday August 3, the EC announced an extended re-registration exercise from August 5-12.
Further, the commission revealed it would hold a continuous voter registration exercise from August 19-26.
John Boadu, the NPP’s representative at IPAC, speaking to the media after the meeting, disclosed: “Just as we said, after our (NPP’s) checks and rounds, we realised, especially in the Effutu constituency, that there were people, who were still in the queue, who could not get re-registered, there were people, who had even filled their names to be registered who were waiting to take their pictures, but the Electoral Commission then said that because of [poor] visibility, they couldn’t take their pictures. Thankfully enough, the EC has listened to us. They are saying that from the 5th to 12th [of August], they are going to allow such people to go back and re-register to become voters in our next elections.”
Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3FM
