<<Print>>Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, says the Supreme Court cannot order the Electoral Commission (EC) to delete names from the voters' register.
He punched holes in the assertion by Justice Jones Dotse, a Supreme Court Judge, who in a rare interview, clarified a recent judgment of the apex court which had divided opinion.
Justice Dotse's comments were in respect of varying interpretations given to the Supreme Court's judgment on a case brought against the Electoral Commission (EC) and the Attorney-General by a former Youth Organizer of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Abu Ramadan and one Evans Nimako.
The respected judge, who was a panel member of the Supreme Court (SC) Justices who ordered the EC to delete NHIS Card registrants, stressed that the ruling was 'clear' and so urged people who misunderstand the ruling to return to the court.
“...I don’t want to interpret the judgment but as you heard it the Supreme Court was quite forthright and clear that the use of the NHIS cards is unconstitutional..." he stated.
Addressing the issue to the media, Justice Dotse interpreted the basis for the SC ruling, saying "the criterion for the NHIS cards was not based on Ghanaian citizenship but only on residents in Ghana. So any foreigner who is resident in Ghana for six months and more can register under the NHIS card; that was the basis for our decision in 2014. The recent one we said the use of the NHIS cards is therefore unconstitutional; they should take the opportunity to clean the register of those undesirable persons. Therefore we also did not want to disenfranchise anybody; so the Supreme Court went on to say anybody who will be affected by that exercise must be given the opportunity to register according to the law and the constitution."
But Mr. Pratt cast doubts over Justice Dotse's assertions saying he (Dotse) is not an authority on whether the EC should delete names from the register or not.
The Senior Journalist pointed out that the EC doesn't have the right to delete any names from the register under the existing laws governing the Commission.
He stated emphatically during a panel discussion on PeaceFM's "Kokrokoo" that the EC can only remove names from the register through an arbitration process.
"The point is that the Electoral Commission must act within the law. When you look at all the constitutional instruments up to CI 91 and so on, none of them give the power - sole motto - to delete names on the register."
He further held strongly that Justice Dotse's comments do not represent the Supreme Court's decision on the registration of NHIS Card holders during the limited registration exercise.
"Justice Dotse is not the Supreme Court," he claimed.
Suggesting the way forward, he concluded that "what we have to do is to properly go back to the Supreme Court for the Supreme Court to give us what it meant by that judgment...It's not for one member of the panel to make a statement which settles everything."
Meanwhile, touching on the same issue on Kokrokoo, the Acting General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) John Boadu argued that "it is not entirely correct to state that the Electoral Commission doesn't have the right to delete names of people on the register. We have existing processes that as we speak now, Electoral Commission don't need any law or additional law to do so."