.JPG "Former Chief Justice Georgina Wood")
Eulogy to Chief Justice
I am prompted to write this tribute to the immediate past Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood, after almost ten 10 years of dedicated service as the Chief Justice. Since 1986, she has also served as Justice of the Superior Courts. This is particularly the case, given the creative and timely measures for the resolution of election-related disputes in 2016, at a time when there was simmering tension across the length and breadth of our dear nation amidst the season of party political campaigning,
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Your Ladyship set up a system to ensure that election related disputes in the run up to the 2016 general election were determined or adjudicated upon in an expeditious manner in order to promote free, fair, credible and transparent elections.
Abu Ramadan cases
For instance, the Supreme Court in the Abu Ramadan cases held that the use of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card to register as a voter for election was unconstitutional since the NHIS card did not provide proof of nationality. The Court, therefore, directed the Electoral Commission (EC) to cancel the names of all those who had registered with NHIS cards. At the same time, in order not to disenfranchise bona fide citizens, it ordered that those whose names are cancelled should be given the opportunity to re-register provided that they met the constitutional criteria to vote.
The Supreme Court also took a very objective and progressive approach in dealing with the disputes related to the disqualification by the EC of some aspiring presidential candidates. It will be recalled that the disqualification of the aspiring candidates and the legal disputes arising from the disqualifications were threatening to disrupt completely the electoral timetable and throw the whole nation into a constitutional crisis.
When the EC applied to the Supreme Court for the order of certiorari to quash the decision of the High Court upholding the complaint of Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom that the EC had acted in an arbitrary manner, the Supreme Court took an unusually bold and activist judicial stance by not only disposing of the specific application before it in dismissing the EC’s certiorari application, but it also directed that all such matters pending in the High Court be stayed and the affected persons given the opportunity to correct the application form and resubmit same to the EC not later than a specific date.
In one bold expression of judicial activism, the Supreme Court resolved these legal disputes and saved the country from possible constitutional crisis.
Highly significant
Highly significant also is the effect of the landmark unanimous decision of the Supreme Court, especially its Final Order of October 27, 2016 in the matter of Kwesi Nyame-Tsease Eshun vrs. Electoral Commission and The Attorney-General, Writ/Suit No. J1/24/2016, filed on 27/09/2016. In that case the Court ordered that copies of the Results Collation Form namely, Form One E.L. 23A for parliamentary candidates, and Form One E.L. 23B for presidential candidates be given to the agents of the contesting candidates after being signed by both the returning officer and the agents of the contesting candidates.
Particularly striking was the court’s creative approach to decision making in this case by affording the parties themselves, including the EC, the opportunity to agree on the contents of the Final Order amending some of the unconstitutional provisions of C.I. 94 of 2016. By so doing, the Supreme Court avoided the danger of being perceived as usurping the constitutional functions of the EC to make regulations for the conduct of elections.
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Supreme Court’s decision
The Supreme Court’s decision to give signed copies of the Results Collation Form to contesting candidates inter alia, in its Final Order, means that it is prudent for the EC to be patient and wait for the signed original hardcopies in the possession of its 275 returning officers in order for the Chairperson of the EC to use them to announce the final result of the votes cast for the contesting presidential candidates. This is what the chairperson eventually did after the EC abandoned its methodology to use electronically transmitted results.
By so doing, the chairperson avoided the pitfall of announcing results which were at variance with or different from the signed copies the EC per its returning officers had given to the agents of the contesting candidates and now in the possession of the presidential candidates.
In all this, the role of Her Ladyship the Chief Justice as the Head of the Judiciary cannot be underestimated, just as the role of the Justices of the High Court and the Supreme Court who sat on these cases need to be highly appreciated.
The Supreme Court of the Republic, headed by Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood in the Year of Our Lord 2016 AD, undoubtedly contributed significantly to give us a peaceful, fair, credible and transparent general election in 2016 and for the great service to the nation in upholding the rule of law. I wish to thank you all. Ghanaians salute thee, and indeed you are our real heroes!