The Supreme Court will tomorrow hear an application urging it to order the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters register.
A former National Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Mr Abu Ramadan, filed a writ invoking the original jurisdiction of the court to grant, among other declarations, an order setting aside the 2012 Voters Register.
The applicant specifically wants the court to compel the EC to compile a fresh voters register before any new public election or referendum is conducted in the country. The matter was billed for hearing yesterday, but the court did not sit because one of the panel members was out of the jurisdiction, according to the Registrar of the court, Mr James Mensah.
Reliefs
The applicant is seeking a further declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of Article 45 (a) of the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, 1992, the mandate of the EC to compile the register of voters implies a duty to compile a fair and transparent register.
He also wants a declaration that “the 2012 voters register which contains the names of persons who have no established qualification to be registered is inconsistent with Article 42 and 45 (a) and, therefore, unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect.”
Forum
The EC recently held a forum to deliberate on complaints by mainly the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the old register was bloated and unfit to be used for the 2016 election.
The party and other civil society organisations had demanded that the EC should compile a new register.
But the committee set up by the EC to deliberate on the calls for a new voters register rejected arguments for a new voter roll, describing the calls as “unconvincing.”
The Commission, in a statement signed by Christian Owusu-Parry, Acting Director of Public Affairs in the last week of October, 2015, said the EC “accepts the recommendations of the Panel and will progressively implement the recommendations made therein.”
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