Countdown to Monday: Supreme Court puts EC on spot over voter ID card
Supreme Court orders Electoral Commission to set out the legal basis for its refusal to accept the existing voter registration card as valid on 8 June
The Supreme Court has ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to provide the legal basis why it has decided to refuse to accept the existing voters’ ID card as a form of identification in the upcoming mass voters’ registration exercise.
A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court, presided over by Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, gave the order on Thursday 4 June, during the hearing of a suit by the opposition National Democratic Congress challenging the EC’s decision to compile a new voters’ register this year.
Graphic Online’s court reporter, Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson, who was in court on Thursday morning, reported that under the orders of the court, the EC must provide a legal basis for its position by Monday 8 June.
Hearing continues on 11 June
Apart from the Chief Justice, the other members on the panel that will decide the case are Justices Jones Dotse, Paul Baffoe Bonnie, Sule Gbadegbe, Samuel K Marful-Sau, Nene Amegatcher and Ashie Kotey.
The NDC 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 voter ID card as a prerequisite for the coming voter registration exercise.
The NDC contends that it is unconstitutional for the EC to reject an existing voter ID, as this will disenfranchise many Ghanaians, which is a violation of Article 42 of the 1992 constitution.
The NDC further argues that under Article 45 of the 1992 constitution, the EC can only compile a voter registration once and thereafter periodically revise it.
By Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson
