Supreme Court ruling: NPP vindicated – Bawumia

The vice presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has stated the main opposition feels vindicated following a Supreme Court ruling that the Electoral Commission should take steps to clean the electoral roll.

The apex court of Ghana on Thursday ruled that the Electoral Management Body must expunge the names of people who registered with the National Health Insurance Card from the register, however, it must afford those affected the opportunity to register again, if they qualify.

Speaking to a gathering of students at the Accra Polytechnic Thursday, Dr Bawumia hailed the Supreme Court’s ruling and called on the Electoral Commission to expedite action to sanitise the voter’s register ahead of the November polls.

“We have been saying that in fact, the voter’s register is not a credible voter’s register. We have said this for a long time and so we expect the Electoral Commission to very quickly and immediately put together the modalities for addressing this issue and removing the names of all the categories specified by the Supreme Court,” Dr Bawumia stressed.

However, the former deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana believes the best way to go is to conduct the general elections with a fresh roll.

“Whichever way you look at it, if we are going to do this in the most efficient way we probably will need a new register given the millions of people who registered with the National Health Insurance Card,” Nana Akufo-Addo’s running mate said.

Meanwhile, the EC has assured that it is already in the process of cleansing the voter’s register.

“The EC is yet to get a copy of the ruling to study. So we will obtain one and study the details but the good thing is that, we have already put in place a program and doing what the ruling is asking,” a Deputy Commissioner of the Electoral Commission Georgina Opoku Amankwah told the media.