Supreme Court upholds NHIS card use decision

The Supreme Court has upheld an application brought by the Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention, Abu Ramadan, challenging the constitutionality of the Electoral Commission’s decision to use National Health Insurance Cards for the voters’ registration exercise.
The Court has thus imposed an injunction on the electoral governing body, barring it from using the National Health Insurance Scheme cards as identity for registering voters for national elections.
The PNC National Youth Organiser and a private lawyer Kwasi Danso-Acheampong had filed separate law suits which were later merged to challenge the EC over the use of the national NHIS cards for the exercise.
The plaintiffs argued that since one is not necessarily required to be a citizen to hold an NHIS card, accepting the card as identity for registering to vote in national elections is a violation of the constitution.
The Supreme Court agreed and granted all the reliefs sought.
The Court had earlier asked the EC to stop its public advertisement on the voter registration exercise while it determined the case before it.
The EC can now proceed with the registration exercise but without the NHIS cards.
The Court however deferred to August 17 to give the reasons for its ruling.
Credit: myjoyonline