General News of Thursday, 7 July 2016

Source: classfmonline.com

EC boss captain of NDC team - Nitiwul

Deputy Minority Leader - Dominic Nitiwul Deputy Minority Leader - Dominic Nitiwul

The actions of the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Charlotte Osei, confirms that she is leading an agenda to favour the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2016 polls, Deputy Minority Leader Dominic Nitiwul has said.

“We [New Patriotic Party] are the ones having a contest with the NDC and not her. Her actions show that she has become the captain of the NDC team,” he noted.

Mr Nitiwul made these comments in Accra on July 6 at the launch of the campaign to re-elect Sarah Adwoa Safo, the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome-Kwabenya.

The comments by the MP for Bimbilla come in the wake of a Supreme Court directive to the EC to implement an earlier instruction it gave on May 5 this year regarding voters, who got registered by presenting National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards, as a national identification document.

The apex court on May 5, following a suit filed by Abu Ramadan, former National Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC), and one Evans Nimako, against the EC, directed the election management body to delete from the register of voters the names of the dead, minors, as well as all voters who registered using their NHIS cards as a national ID. The same court had ruled almost two years ago that the NHIS cards were invalid for voter registration.


But the ruling was given several interpretations. The EC had said after the May 5 ruling that after a cursory look at the directive, it felt the court did not instruct it to delete the names of NHIS card holders, who registered onto the electoral roll. This got many members of the main opposition party wondering why the EC would go against the decision by the court, aimed at ensuring a credible register.

The plaintiffs went back to the court for further clarification, following which the EC was instructed to submit the list of all voters, who registered using NHIS documents.

The EC complied by submitting a list of 56,000 names to the court on July 4, 2016, which paved the way for the court to rule on the matter on Tuesday July 5.

Class FM reporter Paa Kwesi Parker-Wilson, who was in court, reported that the highest court of the land “ordered that the EC should take immediate steps to implement the court decision in the May 5 ruling and to also delete the names that were sent to the court as persons who registered with NHIS cards as well as take steps to delete names that were not submitted to the court but were also found to have registered with the NHIS card”.

For Mr Nitiwul, the actions of the EC, coupled with others’, have made him believe that the EC is being unfair and acting in favour of the governing NDC. He admonished NPP supporters at the launch to be vigilant before, during, and after votes are cast during the elections.

He cautioned citizens not to vote “for a government that will come and steal” and encouraged the electorate at Dome-Kwabenya to vote for Ms Safo and the NPP flagbearer. He said the NPP was targeting to win over 150 seats with no less than 20 MPs from the Greater Accra Region”.