<<Print>>The Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) and the Civic Forum Initiative wants the country’s Electoral Commission (EC) to break its long silence on how it intends to carry out the July 5th Supreme Court order. The Court has ordered the EC to delete 56,000 names of persons who registered with National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards ahead of the 2012 election from the register.
IDEG and the Civic Forum Initiative in a statement said the EC’s silence on the matter is fuelling rumour and speculation. They further urged the EC to act swiftly on the order from the Supreme Court. “So far, the EC has not communicated swiftly and proactively with the public on the status of the implementation of reforms and recommendations. This has left the larger Ghanaian public uninformed and therefore opened to rumours, allegations and suspicions.
We are therefore calling on the EC to act expeditiously to account to the people of Ghana on the implementation of the expected reforms and the extent to which those measures have strengthened the institution for the 2016 elections.” The two bodies also charged the EC to publish measures put in place to ensure compliance of the order. “It will be useful if the EC were to publish how it intends to carry out the 5TH July, 2016 order of the Supreme Court and also educate the public on the impending exhibition of the provisional BVR which is scheduled to commence on July 18, 2016.
The EC should not also hesitate to call on civil society and the public for assistance to enable it deliver free, fair and transparent elections in November 2016. We are persuaded that such actions by the EC will go a long way in increasing public trust and confidence in the execution of its mandate,” the statement added. EC to adopt modalities to delete ‘NHIS voters’ The Electoral Commission had earlier said it will soon come up with modalities and a date to comply with the Supreme court order. The Head of Communication at the EC, Eric Dzakpasu, in an interview said they will also take steps to delete other names of persons who registered with NHIS cards but who were not immediately known to the Commission.