Supreme Court Adjourns Judgement on EC’s Voters’ Register Indefinitely

The Supreme Court has in a unanimous decision consolidated the two cases filed against the Electoral Commission’s (EC) mass voters’ registration exercise.

The court has also asked the plaintiff in the second suit, Mr Mark Takyi-Banson to file his statement of case by close of Monday, June 22, 2020, reports Graphic Online's Justice Agbenorsi.

As a result of the consolidation, the apex court has indefinitely adjourned its judgment in the case filed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which was slated for June 23 this year for judgment.

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At the hearing Friday, June 19, 2020, a seven-member panel of the apex court, presided over by the Chief Justice, Justice Kwasi Annin Yeboah, adjourned the case to Wednesday [June 23, 2020] after it had consolidated the two cases following an application by a Deputy Attorney General, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame for consolidation of the suits on grounds that the two suits “arrives substantially as the same set of action.”

Background

The NDC had earlier, in a legal suit against the EC, invoked the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to interpret the constitution with a case that it was unconstitutional for the EC to reject an existing voters ID as a prerequisite for the upcoming voter registration exercise.

The minority believe the Constitutional Instrument (C.I) to be used by the EC in compiling the new register will disenfranchise many Ghanaians who do not have a passport or Ghana Card.

The NDC also argued in another suit that per Article 45 of the 1992 Constitution the EC lacks the power to go ahead with its plans because it can only “compile a register of voters only once, and thereafter revise it periodically, as may be determined by law”.

The Supreme Court hence ordered the EC to provide the legal basis why it has decided to refuse to accept the existing voters’ identification card as a form of identification in the upcoming mass voters registration exercise.

The EC in response said the old Constitutional Instrument (C.I. 12) which was used in compiling the existing voters’ register did not require any require any proof of qualification to register as a voter.

This the EC said meant that, anyone who registered under C.I. 12 cannot be said to have satisfied the constitutional test of proving qualification since no proof was required even though the criteria for qualification under Article 12 was set out therein.

NDC drops new register argument

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) later abandoned its legal case seeking to stop the Electoral Commission (EC) from going ahead with the voter registration exercise.

The NDC’s suit at the Supreme Court is based on two premises - first, that the attempt by the EC to compile a new registration exercise was unconstitutional and second that the decision of the EC to exclude an existing voter ID as a form of identification for the exercise was also unconstitutional.

However, at Thursday (June 11,2020) morning’s hearing, lawyer for the NDC, Mr Godwin Kodzo Tameklo, per reports from Graphiconline abandoned the first leg which had to do with the constitutionality of the EC’s decision to conduct that exercise.

That was after the court told counsel that per the rules of court, a party cannot be seeking a relief and also asked to be granted another relief in the alternative.

Before the indefinite adjournment, the Supreme Court had earlier scheduled June 23, 2020 to deliver its judgment on whether or not to uphold the Electoral Commission’s (EC) decision to refuse existing voters’ card as a form of identification for the upcoming mass registration exercise.