SC Judgment On NHIS Cards: 2016 Polls Doubtful, Constitutional Crisis Looms

The aftermath of the Supreme Court judgment in the Abu Ramadan case which ordered the Electoral Commission to take immediate steps to delete names of persons who used NHI cards as proof of identification is just about confirming prophecies by General Overseer and founder of the Glorious Way Revival Ministries, Rev. OwusuBempah and others that, the November 7 elections may not come of, if Ghanaians fail to pray.

Aside the controversy, the judgment has generated and the enormity of work it imposes on the EC with barely five months to the elections. Many fear the looming legal consequences inherent in the judgment are most likely to affect the running of the elections on the proposed November 7 date or even December 7 as the case may be.

Already, while some are advocating for the postponement of the elections to allow the EC time to put the register in proper shape, others are also threatening to use all available lawful means to force the election management to enforce the SC ruling to the latter.

Even more worrying among the implications likely to hold back the election are reports that some persons are preparing to challenge the election of President John DramaniMahama and the 275 elected Members of Parliament on the basis that they were elected with a flawed register.

Even though the Supreme Court in its judgment explained that those who utilized the NHI cards as proof of identification in the 2012 elections did so lawfully at the time, and by implication the election of the President and MPs couldn’t have been said to be flawed, these persons, The aL-hAJJ has gathered, are hell bent on creating confusion in order to block the EC from conducting the polls for this year.

“If they succeed in stopping the EC from organizing the elections with this and other impending needless suits, what will then happen is that President Mahama and the MPs term in office will come to an end and the Chief Justice would have to be sworn in as president after which an interim government will be put in place to oversee the conduct of fresh elections,” a source with deep knowledge of this diabolic agenda disclosed to this paper.

This yet-to-be executed plot will confirm prophecies by Rev OwusuBempah and other seers that some people are plotting to make the organisation of this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections slated for November 7 impossible.

Speaking on Accra-based Rainbow radio early this year, the man of God said those plotting to block the elections are planning a coup and if care is not taken, “they will take over government and when they take over, we will not be able to conduct the 2016 elections.” Such a situation will force the United Nations to question the November 7 general elections.

Earlier in 2015, the man of God he had a revelation from God. “In the revelation, I saw trouble looming and a terrible wind blowing over the country, I saw bloodshed and I was alarmed,” Rev. OwusuBempah told journalists at his Busia-Junction Church, urging the clergy to pray for the country in order to prevent any tragedy. “If we don’t pray to avert the situation, what happened to Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia might befall us too,” the man of God warned.

An Islamic cleric MallamShamunaUstazJibril, who is also credited with many predictions which he attributes to Allah has warned of a possible ‘doom’ ahead of this year’s elections.
The soothsayer noted that – Ghana is likely to experience an uprising similar to what happened during the 2010 Ivorian presidential election.
“I, however, doubt if there is going to be elections this year. Should there be elections, however, the foregone are the results to be registered”, the man of God said.

Similarly, the Head of legal department at ADB was also reported to have said last year that disaster looms over the country and the country should put in place appropriate measures to avert it.
He said “The observation and research I have made indicates that there are dark clouds hanging over the country. In the next 25 months, Ghana is likely to witness a civil strife through election violence.”

His statement was supported by Managing editor of TheaL-hAJJ, AlhajiBatureIddrisu, who also stated “The country is sitting on a time bomb which is likely to plunge the country into civil strife during the 2016 general elections.”

AlhajiBature, therefore, appealed to religious leaders, civil society organizations, the National Peace Council, the security agencies and eminent personalities in the country to rise up and adopt measures for peace before, during, and after the 2016 general election.
He said for the first time in the history of Ghana, the country “may experience chaos.”

Ask to justify his assertion AlhajiBature said “the belligerent posture taken by the opposition party portends a gloomy picture for the country for the next general elections, which would be held in November 2016, if the current constitutional amendment goes through.”
“You don’t need a soothsayer or a Mallam to tell you that the country is heading for danger,” he warned.

According to him, the opposition had made strenuous efforts to run down the Electoral Commission (EC), the security agencies and the Supreme Court, against their defeat in the 2012 elections.

Sensing a possible disorder if the EC is not allowed some time to put the current voter register into proper shape, founding president of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, has called for a postponement of the elections.

Making reference to neighboring Nigeria which did same for a proper voter database to succeed, Mr.Cudjoe, in a short e-mail message sent to News Ghana, indicated that “Our current electoral woes are symptomatic of the current outbreak of the Zika disease, and that has forced a scientifically backed decision to postpone the Olympics. Postpone the Ghanaian elections and let’s get the database right else there is likely to be chaos,”MrCudjoe stated.


Confirming MrCudjoe’s fears, a member of the pressure group Occupy Ghana, Sydney Casely-Hayford, hints of plans to challenge the eligibility of every person on the voters register when the EC begins the exhibition exercise.

Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis program, ‘The Big Issue’, MrCasely-Hayford said “As for me, I’m going to my polling station in McCarthy hill and I’m going to tell the electoral people there that everybody whose name is on that register is an alien and illegal persons and I don’t know them and I suspect they are all foreigners whose names are on the register. So, I expect each one of them to be removed from the register and they should be told to come back and come and clarify.”

He added “I will recruit 29,000 people and assign each of them to a polling station and when they go to the polling station, they are supposed to challenge everybody’s name on the polling register.”

Mr. Casely-Hayford believes his action is legal because it is backed by the Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) 91. He argued that the C.1.91 creates a big loophole hence must be checked since it has the tendency of creating chaos in the country.

“I will be a registered voter and I have a right. They are saying that according to C.I. 91, I should go and check and if anybody’s name is on the register and I suspect to be an alien, I should report that person and they will go to the magistrate court to go and prove themselves. It’s a big loophole because I will get 29,000 people and they should challenge every name on the poll,” he added.

His comment follows lamentations by some electoral observers during the recent limited voter registration exercise that the various political parties were abusing the challenge form which is usually filled in protest of minors or foreigners seeking to be captured on the nation’s electoral register.


However, TheaL-hAJJ has also gathered that there are persons who are also warming up to mount stiff challenge to any attempts to have their names deleted from the voter register.