We asked EC to delete ‘NHIS voters’ – Justice Dotse explains (audio)

Enoch Darfah Frimpong May - 26 - 2016 , 13:00

A Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Jones Dotse has clarified that the court ordered the deletion of the names of all those who registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card from the electoral register.

Speaking during an interaction with journalists at a training programme for judges on the new electoral law - C.I. 91 - in Accra Thursday, Justice Dotse said anybody who is aggrieved about the court’s ruling should come back to the court.

Justice Dotse was a member of the panel of Supreme Court Judges who unanimously ordered that the EC clean the voters' register by removing the names of voters who registered with the NHIS card and rather offer an opportunity for anybody affected by that move but who qualifies to be re-registered.

Graphic Online’s reporter, Seth J. Bokpe who was at the function reported that Justice Dotse said the court was clear in its ruling.

“…well I don’t want to interpret the judgment but as you heard it, the Supreme Court was quite forthright and clear that the use of the NHIS cards is unconstitutional because the criteria for the NHIS was not based on Ghanaian citizenship but only on residents in Ghana," he said.

"So any foreigner who is resident in Ghana for six months and more can register under the NHIS cards. That was the basis upon our decision in 2014. And the recent one, we said the use of the NHIS cards is therefore unconstitutional, they should take the opportunity to clean the register of those undesirable persons. Therefore, we also did not want to disenfranchise anybody, so the Supreme Court went on to say anybody who will be affected by that exercise must be given the opportunity to register according to the law and the constitution, period, that is it," Justice Dotse added.

When asked what he made of the explanation by the Electoral Commission with regards to the ruling, Justice Dotse said, “as I said, I don’t want to interpret the judgment, if anybody is aggrieved, then they should come back to the court.”

Listen to Justice Dotse's explanation here {mp3}justice_dotse_speaks_on_nhis_cards_deletion{/mp3}