Press Release
LMVCA
May 06, 2016
SUPREME COURT VINDICATES LMVCA
ON VOTERS REGISTER
The Supreme Court today
ordered the Electoral Commission to delete from the
electoral roll names of all dead people, minors and
persons who used the National Health Insurance Scheme
(NHIS) card to register to vote. The Let My Vote
Count Alliance (LMVCA) welcomes this landmark ruling by
the Highest Court of the Land as victory for the victims
of September 16 police brutalities, and all who fought
for a credible register. The ruling by the Court has
re-affirmed our long held position that the current
voters’ register is not reasonably credible. Per the
ruling of the Supreme Court, an estimated 5 million names
are expected to be expunged from the register. This will
be by far the biggest deletion of names from any
electoral roll in Africa. It is a huge responsibility.
EC has no choice but to comply. The question is how can
the EC effectively get this done? Will the EC undertake
another limited registration after the mass deletion of
names? The EC told the Court that the only way it can
identify and isolate the estimated over 4 million who
registered using NHIS cards is to retrieve all the Form
1As that people filled at the point of registration.
The Court was quick to stress that the EC must comply
with the ruling, failing which would amount to
committing "high crime". But how will the EC do this
with the time left for election? This is the critical
question to which Ghanaians must demand immediate
answer.
Will the political parties be involved in
this search through all the millions Form 1A forms at
the district level? Are the forms even intact? The EC
has been giving doublespeak on this.
How does the EC
intend to effectively identify all the dead and delete
their details?
When will the EC practically delete
these names and in time for the exhibition before
compiling the final register for the 2016 elections?
When will the millions whose names are to be deleted be
given the chance to register again and in time for the
exhibition before compiling the final register for the
2016 general elections?
It looks like the best and
only way the EC can comply successfully with the Court
decision is to do what its own "panel of experts"
recommended in their report: validation, authentication
or verification of every registered voter. The Court has
ordered for the register to be completely purged and
respecting the EC's independence, left it to the EC to
decide how best to delete and re-register the Ghanaians
whose names will be deleted. Those Ghanaians MUST NOT BE
DISENFRANCHISED! The EC cannot hold the 2016 election
unless it cleans the register by doing the deletion
ordered by the highest court of the land.
Already,
the EC has planned to deploy verification machines in
all polling stations for the exhibition. This means the
hardware and personnel are all in place. If the EC
means well it will make this verification or validation
whether before or during the exhibition period MANDATORY
by passing a CI (Regulation) to that effect. This is
similar to the law, CI 75, which said in 2012 that NVNV:
every voter must be first biometrically verified before
being allowed to vote.
The LMVCA will like to urge
the EC to take immediate action. The EC should call an
emergency IPAC meeting to urgently discuss with the
parties the best way to do what the Supreme Court has
ordered. Per this historic ruling, it has become clear
that the EC CANNOT hold the 2016 elections Unless and
Until it does what the apex court has ordered. This is a
major victory for giving us a credible register.
Now the Court has done it's bit, the EC must comply
and help give Ghana a free, fair and peaceful polls in
2016.
Let my vote count, don't destroy our
democracy!!
Signed
David Asante
(Convener) 0268 220220
|