The Electoral Commission has been petitioned by the Member of Parliament of the Efutu constituency to extend the re-registration date of NHIS card registrants by another 10 days.

According Afenyo Markin, the exercise in his constituency faced many challenges which prevented the EC from capturing as many names as possible.

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“The petition as drafted and signed by my good self at 8 pm yesterday [Tuesday], and the same was delivered this morning [Wednesday] and received by one John Okine at the EC’s office,” Afenyo Markin confirmed.

“…we have an exceptional situation in Winneba having 5,269 deleted registrants. It is not to be treated  same as a constituency where they have 300, 100, 500 or even 1,000. For instance, yesterday, we had over 500 people there but they could only register 203 because of network challenges and rains. And as at close of work, over 100 people had filled their forms but could not take their pictures,” he added he said.

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He noted that such turn of events would amount to a breach of the constitutional rights of his constituents and expressed hope that the EC would give a positive answer to his petition.

Background

With just two days to the end of the voter re-registration exercise only 14,801 have been re-registered out of the 56,772 persons who registered as voters using the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards Director of Communications at the Electoral Commission (EC), Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, has revealed.

Eric Kofi Dzakpasu indicated that the Commission is worried many Ghanaian could be disenfranchised in this year’s general elections.

“As at the close of work yesterday [Monday], out of the 56,772 deleted, 14,801 have re-registered. Those who are not coming, we will be expecting them to come in their numbers so that we can get them re-registered [in order] that they can vote but they are not coming as we expected them to come,” he said

“The least we can do under this circumstance is to reach out to them, intensify the publicity, help them to know that the exercise is ongoing so they should come back and re-register,” he added

Speaking on an Accra-based Citi FM Mr. Dzakpasu stated that the commission has put in the necessary measures to get individuals whose names were deleted from the voter’s register to re-register before the exercise ends.

“Our publicity vans are all over, the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) is on the ground, we have involved the churches and the community leaders and traditional rulers and in some areas, they have deployed gong-gong beaters to announce to the community so that they come out and take part in the re-registration as well as the exhibition exercise,” Mr Dzakpasu stated