Ghana’s apex court orders electoral commission to provide legal basis for excluding voter IDs in voter registration
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana’s Supreme Court Thursday ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to provide the legal basis for rejecting the existing voter identification card for a new registration exercise scheduled to begin at the end of June.
A seven-member panel that gave the order was presided by the Chief Justice, Justice Anin Yeboah, media reports monitored by PANA here said.
The other members of the panel were Justices Jones Dotse, Paul Baffoe Bonnie, Nasiru S. Gbadegbe, Samuel K. Marful-Sau, Nene Abayaateye Ofoe Amegatcher, and Professor Nii Ashie Kotey.
The largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) instituted the action against the EC seeking among others “a true and proper interpretation of Article 45(a) of the 1992 Constitution on whether the EC has the constitutional power to, and can, compile a register of voters only once, and thereafter revise it periodically, as may be determined by law”.
The NDC is also seeking a declaration on whether the EC “can only revise the existing register of voters, and lacks the power to prepare a fresh register of voters, for the conduct of the December 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections”.
The NDC is additionally seeking “a declaration that, upon a true and proper interpretation of the provisions of the Constitution, particularly article 42, upon the registration of and issuance of a voter identification card to a person, that person has an accrued right to vote which cannot be divested in an arbitrary and capricious manner”.
The EC and the Attorney General, the respondents, have filed their response in opposition to the application by the NDC.
Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, described the NDC’s claim in their application as “patently absurd, far-fetched, outrageous and grossly erroneous”.
Justin Amenuvor, on behalf of the EC, described the prayer of the NDC as “an interpretation by the party to serve its parochial interests not a proper appreciation of the 1992 Constitution as a whole”.
The supreme court in its ruling Thursday ordered the EC to furnish the court with the legal basis for their decision.
It also asked the applicant to do the same if it has any legal arguments within the same timelines given to the EC so as not to delay the case.
The court adjourned sitting to 11 June, 2020.
The opposition NDC has launched a relentless challenge to the EC led by its chairperson, Jeane Mensah, and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) against the compilation of a new voters’ registration for the December 7 general election.
Meanwhile, the EC Wednesday completed a two-day pilot project on the new registration exercise in 16 regions of the country in preparation for the actual exercise that begins on June 30.
-0- PANA RA 4Jun2020
