IDEG, CFI hail apex court’s order for removal of NHIS registrants on electoral roll

The Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) and the Civic Forum Initiative (CFI) have hailed the Supreme Court order to the Electoral Commission (EC) to remove from the biometric voters’ register (BVR) names of voters identified to have registered using their National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards.

According to them, the move kicked off the much-awaited process of improving the integrity of the BVR.

In a joint statement issued in Accra yesterday, the two groups said with four months to the elections, it was imperative that further improvement was not stalled by the lack of adequate information on all aspects of the electoral process.

It was their belief, they said, that strengthening confidence and public trust in the electoral process was a collective responsibility of the EC as well as other state institutions, political parties and the electorate at large.

Enhancing integrity

In that respect, they said, the EC’s actions from now would be crucial in setting the tone and direction of enhancing the integrity of the electoral process.

They observed that the enormous independence conferred on the EC by the Constitution placed a corresponding responsibility on it to be transparent and accountable to the public.

“Currently, public trust and confidence in the EC is relatively low. This can be partly attributed to the lack of proactive communication by the EC with the public, hence the need for openness and transparency,” they said.

They recalled that in 2013, the Supreme Court recommended important administrative reforms needed to improve elections administration while in January 2016, the Panel of Experts set up by the EC on the integrity of the 2013 BVR also submitted its report to the EC with some recommendations.

EC not proactive

“So far, the EC has not communicated swiftly and proactively with the public on the status of implementation of the reform and recommendations. This has left the larger Ghanaian public uninformed and therefore, open to rumours, allegations and suspicions,” they said.

They, are, therefore, calling on the EC to act expeditiously to account to the people of Ghana on the implementation of the expected reforms and the extent to which those measures had strengthened the institution for the 2016 elections.

It would also be useful, they said, if the EC were to publish how it intended to carry out the July 5, 2016 order of the Supreme Court and also educate the public on the forthcoming exhibition of the provisional BVR which is scheduled to commence on July 18, 2016.

The two groups also called on the EC not to hesitate to call on civil society and the public for assistance to enable it to deliver on its mandate, saying such actions by the EC would go a long way in increasing public trust and confidence in the execution of its mandate.