The
Electoral Commission (EC) said although it was yet to get a copy of the
Supreme Court ruling, it had already put in mechanisms to delete names
of the dead and those who registered with the National Health Insurance
Card.
Mrs Georgina Opoku Amankwah, the Deputy Commissioner of
the EC in charge of Corporate and General Services, who announced this
at a press briefing, said with issues bordering on criminality the
Commission was dealing with the Ghana Police Service to prosecute the
affected people.
The press briefing coincided with a visit by the
delegation of the East African Community (EAC) Forum of Electoral
Commission, which was in the country since Sunday, May 1, for UNDP
training on Electoral Management.
The exchange visit was to engage the Ghana Electoral Commission’s best practices and successes.
The EAC is made up of Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania and Rwanda.
Mr
Amankwah said in Africa, Ghana’s EC was seen as one of the best
electoral management bodies and that was why the delegation was in Ghana
to consult with it to discuss issues about structural arrangement and
how registrations were done in different countries.
Answering
questions on what the EC was doing about over populated areas such as
the university campuses, the Deputy Chair said the EC was sending teams
to ease pressure at areas that had high population.
She said they
were also taking immediate steps to replace faulty machines and that
was an on-going exercise and expressed the hope that all faulty machines
would be replaced as early as possible to facilitate work at the
centres.
Mrs Amankwah said considering Ghana Statistical
Service’s figures, the EC was contemplating adding about 1.2 million
people to the register.
She said one of the new things that would happen in the 2016 General Election was the electronic transmission of results.
Mr
Charles Njoroge, the Deputy Secretary General, Political Federation,
who led the delegation, thanked the EC for allowing them to consult with
them.
“We have learnt a lot that will help us back in our various countries’ election,” he said.
Mr
Njoroge commended the EC for operating transparent system by engaging
the media and other actors frequently and expressed the hope that that
exemplary practice would continue after the country’s general election.
He
said: “Politics is not just for today but for tomorrow,” and stressed
the need for all stakeholders to contribute their quota to ensure
peaceful, free, fair and transparent election.
He said there could not be 100 per cent perfection in any electoral process and urged all actors to make room for peace.
Supreme
Court on Thursday ordered the Electoral Commission to delete from the
electoral register names of all dead people and persons who used the
NHIS card to register.
The court also ordered the EC to allow
those whose names would be removed because they used the NHIS card as
proof of citizenship to register, an opportunity to register if they
qualify.
The court gave its ruling on a case brought by two
politicians, Abu Ramadan, a former Youth Leader of the Peoples’ National
Convention, and Kwame Baffoe, New Patriotic Youth Leader, seeking to
challenge the credibility of Ghana's Electoral Register.
The court also asked the EC to remove from the register all minors who registered in the last elections in 2012.
The Supreme Court, in its ruling, unanimously asked the EC to do all it could to consult others in its work. |
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