Six days long enough to produce ‘NHIS voters’ list – Damoah-Agyeman

The Supreme Court’s directive to the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) to supply it in six days with the names of persons who registered as voters in 2012 by presenting health insurance cards as identification is rather magnanimous of the court, asserts Kwame Damoah-Agyeman, a former chief director of the commission.

According to him, six days is more than adequate time for the EC to compile the list being demanded by Ghana’s apex court, since the data is already available in electronic form in its database and a simple procedure will be required to retrieve it.

The Supreme Court on Thursday June 24, 2016 gave the order, in a follow-up to its May 5 instruction to the election management body asking it to expunge the names of aliens, minors, and persons who had been registered on the electoral roll by using National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards as a form of identification. The apex court had ruled in an earlier judgement in 2014 that NHIS cards were not sufficient proof of citizenship and thus could not guarantee that persons who got on to Ghana’s poll roll by such route were all Ghanaians.

The EC, after removing the names of such persons from the register, was to provide them with the opportunity to reregister by presenting a valid national ID, but the commission failed to comply with the court’s judgement, stating that its interpretation of the instructions from the court did not state that, prompting Mr Abu Ramadan of the PNC to return to court to compel the EC to act. The EC is supposed to return to court on June 29 with a response.

Speaking on Accra News on Friday June 24, Mr Damoah-Agyemang said the EC could do put together such data in record time since the information was already available to them since the Form 1A used during registration had a column indicating the ID used to register the voter, with the information subsequently fed into the computer and a hardcopy printed.

He added that after capturing the data of such registrants electronically, it would be unconvincing for the EC to claim such information was not in its system. “So the data is available. If they wish to do it all their IT experts have to do is to interrogate the computer and pull them out. So even the six days is too much. They should have done it by now. It is not a difficult thing to do,” he told Nana Ama Agyarko.

In his view, the action of the EC to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision was a pointer of the level of readiness for presidential and parliamentary polls intended for November 7, 2016.

“It tells us they have not prepared adequately for the poll. Polls are governed by rules and when the highest court gives you directives to follow and you drag your feet then it appears you have some different agenda or intention, it is like you are stalling so the time passes and you create confusion in the country,” he added.

Mr Damoah-Agyeman also criticised the failure of the EC to prioritise and implement important things but rather concerning itself with replacing its logos and rebranding. “Does that change your character or how you function?” he asked, adding: We joke too much with certain issues. Elections are serious business. With what they are demonstrating now perceptions are as important as the reality, you are leading people to form the idea that you are hiding something, you are involved in an underhand dealings. It should be careful.”