We won’t extend re-registration for NHIS cards registrants-EC

The Electoral Commission (EC) has stated that it would not extend the deadline for the just ended re-registration exercise despite the fact that majority of the electorates whose names were deleted from the register could not re-registered.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, the EC’s Communications Director, Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, revealed that only 22,107 out of the total 56,900 voters whose names were deleted as NHIS registrants were re-registered during the 10-day exercise.

He explained that there is no indication that an extension would ensure more people are re-registered.

“There is no evidence that when an extension is granted, the remaining people will come out of their houses or communities to get their name re-registered,” he pointed out.

“In the considered opinion of the commission, the registration exercise could not be extended,” he added.

Mr. Dzakpasu also reiterated the EC’s assertion that low publicity was not responsible for the perceived low turnout.

According to him, “It cannot be the case that the low turnout was caused by low publicity. The message was well disseminated. If people actually wanted to get registered, they could have done so with the 10 days.”

He further explained that, the EC is “required by law to exhibit the provisional register of the persons re-registered” and it would need time to process the data captured. “It necessarily follows that the data captured must be processed.

This means we would require some time to be able to do that in order to be in the position to exhibit the provisional register for the registrants from the fifth to eight August 2016 as agreed at the IPAC.”

Story By: Michael Creg Afful

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