[ 2014-07-24 ]

Court orders EC to suspend voters registration exercise
The Supreme Court has ordered the Electoral
Commission to suspend its intended nationwide
registration process which was to begin on Friday
July 25, 2014.

The highest court has slated July 30, 2014 to give
a substantive ruling on writs brought by three
plaintiffs against the EC- writs which were later
joined into one.

The court also ordered the Commission to stop
running adverts of its impending national voters
registration exercise.

The three plaintiffs- Abu Ramadan of the PNC,
Danso Acheampong and one other person were seeking
to nullify an intended registration process.

Abu Ramadan who did not understand why the EC must
use the National Health Insurance Cards, as part
of the registration process, sought the power of
the court to declare that modality by the EC as
illegal.

He also sought for an interlocutory injunction to
be placed on the entire registration process.

The judges who sat on the case were unhappy with
the Respondent- EC- for running adverts about the
registration at a time when an injunction had been
filed.

Justice Jones Dotse described the act as an
impunity, Joy News' Anny Osabutey reported. He
also reprimanded the Commission and ordered it to
withdraw the adverts.

Lawyer for the EC, James Quarshie Idun, described
the adverts as an oversight and assured they would
no longer be run.

According to lawyer Samson Lardy Ayenini who was
also present at the hearing, the judges did not
want to rule on the injunction case when it was
only a day to go for the intended registration
process- they would rather rule on the substantive
case brought by the three men.

After hearing arguments for and against writ, the
judges agreed to give their final ruling on July
30 but ordered the EC to suspend the intended
registration process until after the ruling.

Source - MyjoyOnline

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