Chief Justice, Justice Anin Yeboah
The Supreme Court has given the Electoral Commission (EC) the go ahead to compile a new register of voters for the 2020 elections.
The court in its judgment ordered the EC to compile the register in accordance with C.I 126 as amended.
The court presided over by the Chief Justice, Justice Anin Yeboah and assisted by Justices Jones Dotse, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Sule Gbadegbe, Samuel Marful-Sau, Nene Amegatcher and Prof. Nii Ashie Kotei dismissed claims by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the EC can only compile the register once and review it periodically.
The court also dismissed claims for the inclusion of the birth certificate as basis for proof of citizenship.
There is however confusion over the interpretation of the judgment as to whether the old ID cards can be used as basis for proof of nationality.
Efforts are being made to procure a copy of the judgement.
The NDC in late March this year, sued the AG and attached the EC over the commission’s decision to compile a new voters’ register for the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.
The party wanted the Supreme Court to declare that the EC, per the 1992 Constitution, can only compile a voters’ register once and subsequently review it over time and not compile a new one instead.
The NDC was also challenging the decision of the EC to exclude the existing voter ID cards as document for verification of citizenship.
The party later abandon its first relief that the EC cannot compile a voters’ register on multiple occasion and was rather punching for the inclusion of the current voter ID cards as basis for proof of citizenship.
A private citizen, Mark Takyi-Banson also filed another seeking similar suit, except that he wanted birth certificates to be used as document for proof of nationality.
The Attorney General which is a respondent in the case opposed the suit by the NDC through the Deputy AG, Godfred Yeboah Dame, stating that the NDC’s position is “patently absurd, far-fetched, outrageous and grossly erroneous.”
The EC in its opposition filed by its counsel, Justin Amenuvor also contended that the NDC interpreted the Constitutional article to suit its parochial interest.
It was the case of the EC that the current register of voters was over bloated and a new credible one was needed for the future.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak
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