Electoral Commission announces the deletion of 56,000 names from register

19:40 - 12 July 2016

The court ordered for the deletion of names of minors on the register, dead people and people who registered with NHIS cards

The EC has given assurance that it would publish the names of the affected persons in the dailies and will also furnish the various political parties with the names on Wednesday.

The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced the deletion of over 56,772 names from the voters register.

This is in accordance with the order by the Supreme Court that the commission should remove, from the voters list, all persons who used the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card as proof of Ghanaian citizenship during the registration in 2012.

The EC has given assurance that it would publish the names of the affected persons in the dailies and will also furnish the various political parties with the names on Wednesday. Affected persons will also be given the opportunity to rejoin the list during the exhibition of the voters register.

The EC plans to exhibit the voters register from Monday, July 18 through to Sunday, August 7.

Last week, the Supreme Court directed the Electoral Commission to with immediate effect remove the names of the 56,000 people it presented as persons who registered with NHIA cards as proof of Ghanaian citizenship as well as any other persons it will find to have registered with the card.

In an interview with Accra- based Joy FM, Frank Davis; the lawyer for Abu Ramadan; the man who initially challenged the legitimacy of NHIS card as proof of citizenship; said his team would be looking out for more names beyond the 56,772. In court, Mr. Davis challenged the number presented by the EC; claiming that the figure is higher than presented.

According to the Electoral Commission, 14,031,793 people are eligible to vote in this year’s elections.