The Electoral Commission says it extended the date for the re-registration of NHIS card registrants as a way of building consensus with stakeholders.

The Deputy Director of Communications Yussif Ayuba told Joy News "we listened to the concerns of the people" and decided to give another opportunity for those who could not be re registered to take advantage of that opportunity.

The names of over 56,000 NHIS card holders were deleted from the voters register following an order by the Supreme Court.

The Apex court held that the NHIS card is not a proof of citizenship and should not have been used as an identity card for registration into the electoral roll.

The court however ordered the EC to reregister all the affected citizens who through no fault of theirs had their names expunged from the regisiter.

After 10 days of re-registration exercise  some 30,000 people are yet to be reregistered. There were fears the voters could be disenfranchised if the EC did not extend the days for re registration.

Even though the deadline for the registration has elapsed, the EC, after an Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting Wednesday announced a new date for re-registration.

Yussif Ayuba said the six day re-registration process will begin from August 5 and end on August 12.

He said the registration will be at all district offices across the country.