The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has sued the Electoral Commission over its decision to organize voter registration exercise in Senior High Schools (SHS).

The NDC wants; “a declaration that it is illegal and wrongful for the Defendant to conduct registration at any place including campuses of a Senior High School which was not contained in the Gazette and notification in accordance with C.I 91.”

Additionally, the opposition wants “a declaration that any such registration of voters including students that take place at any ungazetted and unpublished registration center including Senior High School campuses is null and void and of no legal effect,”

The NDC is also seeking for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Electoral Commission “whether by itself, officers, agents or any other functionary personnel from carrying out registration of voters in any Senior High School or place not duly gazetted or published in accordance with C.I 91 as amended.”

Meanwhile, the EC had already today commenced the two-day registration at premises of the various senior high schools

The exercise is supposed to end tomorrow [Saturday, July 11, 2020].

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The EC’s decision to conduct the registration exercise in schools came after an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Thursday, July 9, 2020.

However, the NDC have argued that the directive contravenes the law which mandates the Electoral Commission to gazette a designated polling center for 21 days.

"We (the NDC) remind the EC that according to C.I. 91 they are required to gazette a designated polling center for 21 days. In the absence of that, any so-called registration center, be it in a school or elsewhere is illegal," the NDC's Director of Elections Mr Afriyie Ankrah have said.

"It is true that the EC was quick to refer to their mandate as prescribed by CI 91 but they conveniently left out portions of the same CI that compels them to gazette for a defined number of days.

"We refer you, ladies and gentlemen to Regulation 2, Paragraph 3 of the CI 91: "The Commission shall at least twenty-one days before the first day of the national registration of voters, inform political parties and the general public by publication in the Gazette of a place it designates as a registration center".

Mr Ankrah questioned the rationale behind banning parents from visiting their wards in schools but allowing EC officials, security personnel and party agents to move freely into schools.