I trust a prostitute over EC – Obiri BoahenI

Chair of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Charlotte Osei

A Deputy General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has registered his distrust of the Electoral Commission (EC) to organise a clean election in the country.

Nana Obiri Boahen says he would prefer a prostitute to the EC when it comes to matters of trust in the Ghanaian election system.

“I prefer to trust a prostitute who is carrying her trade in the night than the EC of today,” he said.

The NPP functionary made this comment when he was reacting to the Supreme Court’s Tuesday decision in which the EC was directed to purge the electoral of persons who registered with National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards.



This was a follow-up to the apex court’s earlier decision on May 5 in a case brought before it by a former National Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako in which the EC was ordered to rid the Voters’ register of undesirable names such as names of minors, ghost names and NHIS carders.

The EC took portions of the ruling and claimed the superior court did not direct it to remove NHIS registrants from the register. This infuriated Abu Ramadan who went to court to seek an interpretation of its ruling.

A five-member panel presided over by the Chief Justice, Georgina Wood cautioned the EC to desist from acts that will plunge the nation into chaos and anarchy. It ordered the EC to furnish it with names of NHIS carders which was done.

The EC submitted over 56,739 names to the court which was opposed by Abu Ramadan and his lawyer Frank Davies who claimed some districts have been exempted from the compilation. The court directed the plaintiffs to furnish the court with their grievances.

After the plaintiffs lawyer submitted their resentments to the court over the EC's list, the apex court directed the EC to go ahead and delete the names of the 56,739 NHIS carders.

It also ordered the EC to delete the names of NHIS registrants whose names were not factored in the 56,739 figure.

Many people have described the case as unprecedented in the country.
Mr Obiri Yeboah believes the “case as far as I am concerned has exposed the Electoral Commission of Ghana as unreliable and a fraudulent body fraud beyond description."

He disclosed the objections and counter documents submitted to the court by the plaintiff demonstrates the EC went to court to deceive Ghanaians.



Source.ghanaweb.com