The man at the centre of the Supreme Court suit over the credibility of Ghana’s voters’ register, Abu Ramadan, has said the Electoral Commission (EC) may have forced itself into a rather difficult position, following its stubbornness, hence the new directive from the Supreme Court, on the matter of National Health Insurance card registrants on the voters’ register.
He has no sympathy for them as he believes the EC had more than enough time to adequately clean the voters’ register but refused to do.
Mr. Ramadan’s comments come after the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the EC to furnish it with the full list of persons, who registered onto the electoral roll with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card as a form of identification, in six days.
The court believes this will bring clarity on its May 5, 2016, judgement, regarding the removal of unqualified persons on the voters registers to a closure.
The apex court further ordered EC to provide them with a detailed plan on how they were going to carry out the deletion and re-registration of the people, who registered with the NHIS cards.
Abu Ramadan had earlier indicated that it would take a number of months for the EC to put such a list together, but he now maintains that the commission has landed itself in this situation, where they now have only 6 days to produce the list.
“I don’t know if the six days they have been given will be enough for them, but that it’s not for me to say” he opined, explaining that, “the commission had two solid years to deal with this matter, to lay this matter to rest.
The commission failed to take action. They also failed do deal with the crux of this matter,” Mr. Ramadan said in an interview on Eyewitness News.
“Aside the two years, the commission had an extra one month to really sort itself out to take the orders of the court serious, and put into effect the orders of the court which it refused to,” he added.
Mr. Ramadan further asserted that the EC would not be in this situation if they had diligently followed the court ruling.
“If the commission had shown good faith and good intent to carry out the orders of the court, we wouldn’t be where we are today. We are where we are today because the commission has not shown good faith in this matter,” he stated.
Background
The apex court on May 5, asked the EC 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.
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 does 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.
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