Supreme Court throws out suit against Abuakwa by-election
The Supreme Court yesterday refused to stop the conduct of the by-election in the Abuakwa North Constituency in the Eastern Region, which has been necessitated by the death of the incumbent Member of Parliament, J. B. Danquah-Adu.
Following the decision, the election will go on as planned on March 29, 2016.
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The court also declined to put a hold on an upcoming limited voter registration exercise from April 28 to May 8, 2016 to enable persons who have since the last registration exercise attained the age of 18 to register.
Others who qualify but may not have yet registered in the last registration exercise would also be captured during the registration process.
The decision of the court followed the dismissal of an application by Messrs Abu Ramadan, a former Youth Organiser of the
Peoples National Convention, and Evans Nimako, a farmer, for an interlocutory injunction to effectively restrain the Electoral Commission (EC) from conducting any new registration exercise or public election until the matters complained of in a substantive suit are addressed by the court.
Court’s decision
According to the court, presided over by the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, reasons for the decision would be inculcated in the judgement in the substantive matter.
Other members of the panel were Mrs Justice Sophia Adinyira, Mr Jones Dotse, Mr Justice Anin Yeboah, Mr Justice N. S. Gbadegbe, Mr Justice A. A. Bennin and Mr J. B. Akamba.
Parties must confer
The parties in the case are expected to file the necessary processes to pave the way for the hearing of the substantive matter in April 2016, but the court advised them to take steps to resolve their differences.
According to the court, it was important for the EC, the Attorney General and the applicants to resolve their differences to pave the way for a more credible and acceptable voters register for the November, 2016 polls.
It urged the parties to view the call “as a serious appeal from the Bench”.
At that point, a Deputy Chairperson of the EC in charge of Finance and Administration, Mrs Georgina Amankwah, assured the court that the EC was in the process of inviting all political parties for dialogue.
The court urged the EC to show good faith, commitment, as well as take steps to comply with the rules of the court.
Nana Bediatuo Asante, counsel for the applicants, earlier moved the application for interlocutory injunction, but counsel for the EC, Mr Thaddeus Sory, opposed it on the grounds that the applicants did not stand to suffer irreparable loss should the court refuse to grant their request.
Substantive Case
It is the contention of the applicants that the current voters register contains the names of persons who have not established qualification to register and whose registration were founded on proof of qualification with the National Health Insurance Card, the use of which the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional, thereby rendering all such registrations null and void.
They said the respondents had admitted that there were registered voters who used the NHIS Card to register in 2012 with the EC describing them as the majority of potential voters.
In a writ filed on February 23, 2016, the applicants commenced an action against the defendants seeking a “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
Electoral Commission of Ghana to compile the register of voters implies a duty to compile a reasonably accurate and credible register”.
They sought a declaration that the current voters register which contained the names of persons “who have not established qualification to be registered is not reasonably accurate or credible and therefore, inconsistent with Article 45(a) of the Constitution thereby making same unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect.
Other reliefs being sought by the applicants are an order setting aside the current voters register and compelling the EC to compile a fresh voters register before the conduct of any new public election or referendum in Ghana; or, in the alternative, “an order compelling the Electoral Commission to audit the current voters register through the validation of the registration of each person currently on the register”.