<<Print>>

Lawyers for former National Youth Organizer of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Abu Ramadan will today file in court an application in opposition to the 56,000 names presented by the Electoral Commission as persons who registered with NHIS cards ahead of the 2012 election.

The Supreme Court in May 2016 asked the EC to delete names of all persons who registered with NHIS cards prior to the 2012 elections from the electoral roll.

The ruling has since been given several interpretations forcing the Supreme Court to ask the EC to present the names to them last Thursday. The EC told the Supreme Court that it registered 56, 000 persons with NHIS cards but Abu Ramadan rejected the list describing it as spurious.

He lawyers have also said the list is questionable.

Speaking to Citi News Abu Ramadan said they will officially file their opposition to the list today.

“I fought with a number of issues, inconsistencies, the deduplication of IP numbers, national health insurance, some came with 8 digits, some as alpha numeric numbers, and the number of issues that came with the particular list was as if to say it was deliberate.”

He argued that the commission may have deliberately left such issues unresolved because it “didn’t get time to really work on it properly.”

“But we are going to raise these issues before the court. We will file in writing before the court so that we meet in court on Tuesday,” he added.

Background

The apex court on May 5 2016, asked the Electoral Commission to expunge from the current voters’ register the names of all persons who registered and voted in the 2012 elections, with the NHIS card as a proof of identity.

The ruling followed a suit filed by Abu Ramadan, and one, Evans Nimako, who in 2014 won a lawsuit that barred the use of NHIS cards for registration of potential voters.

The two, among other reliefs, wanted the current register declared inappropriate for the November polls. But the EC after studying the ruling said it’s understanding did not suggest the use of any new process to delete the names of those who registered with NHIS cards, since there are already laid down procedures for expunging ineligible names.

The EC’s explanation however angered Mr. Ramadan who felt the Commission was disrespecting the explicit orders of the court.

His position was further strengthened when one of the judges who gave the May 5 ruling, stated categorically that the ruling was clear and unambiguous and that the EC must remove the names of persons who registered with the NHIS card.

He subsequently got the Supreme Court to issue the six-day ultimatum to the Commission.