The Supreme Court today, delivered a judgment on the case brought before it by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and two other citizens of Ghana and the Court categorically did not state that the old voters’ ID card be accepted as one of the primary documents required for new voters’ register as we reported earlier in our Breaking News.
Upon checking the facts, we sighted some opinions written by some lawyers on how they understood the ruling in the case of the EC vrs. NDC:
Lawyer Francis SOSU writes-
Supreme Court Decision is a victory for our democracy and for the many Ghanaians who are waiting patiently for Dec 7, 2020 to have a say.
The two critical reliefs by the NDC that were granted by the Supreme Court were:
b. A declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of the provisions of the Constitution, specifically article 51 read conjointly with article 42 of the Constitution, the power of the 2nd Defendant to compile and review the voters’ register must be exercised subject to respect for and the protection of the right to vote;
c. 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 Constitutional Instrument (C.I. 126) by which EC sought to rely on only Ghanaian Passport and NIA cards cannot be used to compile a new register.
By the grant of the above reliefs, the SC has validated the old Voters Register even though it also upheld the right of the EC to compile new register as a Constitutionally independent institution. Even if EC chooses to compile a new register, it cannot take out old Voter ID since it is evidence of accrued right to vote per the ruling.
What the above also means is that, though the EC can compile a new register, there is no need for such compilation because anyone with the old voter ID card has a constitutional right to vote.
I suggest that the EC takes steps to migrate the old data into its new system and only conduct a limited registration for those who do not have the voters ID so they can also exercise their democratic rights.
The EC must lay a new C.I that recognizes the old Voter ID before it can even embark on a new or limited registration exercise.
Also, this is what the NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said shortly after the court this morning as reported by 3news.com:
On the other two citizens vrs. EC:
The two seeking are seeking to court to make a declaration that the existing Voters’ ID card and the Birth certificates be accepted and included as part of the primaries document required for the new voters register registrations.
The Supreme Court has categorically dismissed their applications for the reliefs they are seeking.
Read the full ruling:
[embeddoc url=”https://awakenewsroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Scanned-Documents-1.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]
Signed:
Efo Korsi Senyo
Editor, Awake News
