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General News on Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Source: dailyguidenetwork.com
2019-04-09
President of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Jean Mensa
Officials of the Electoral Commission (EC) could be cited for contempt of court for failing to implement the law amending the Law on the Representation of Persons (Law 699), ordered by a High Court of Appeal. Accra.
The EC has recently asked the court to grant it 12 months to implement this law, which would allow Ghanaians residing abroad to vote in national elections and referendums.
The applicants' lawyer, Sampson Lardy Anyenini, a private lawyer, requested the court to order the EC to disregard the failure to comply with his instructions.
On 17 December 2017, a High Court of Accra (Human Rights Division) ordered the EC to activate the process allowing Ghanaians living abroad to vote in elections from the country.
The court said that, within 12 months – as of January 1, 2018 -, the EC should lay out to Parliament the modalities for the implementation of the ROPAA Act so that Ghanaian citizens living abroad can participate in the 2020 elections.
The 12-month period granted by the court ended on 31 December 2018, but the EC was unable to implement the Law and subsequently filed a motion requesting an extension of time.
Justin Amenuvor, the EC lawyer, moving the application, told the court that several difficulties, including internal problems, were affecting the EC's activities after the order was issued.
One of the challenges, said the President of the EC, concerns the dismissal of Charlotte Osei and her two deputies, Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku-Amankwa, who have been convicted of six allegations made against them by some petitioners. .
This, he said, meant that the BOI could not convene a meeting because his chair and two deputies had been removed from office.
He added that, in the absence of the EC President and his deputies, no one could convene the meeting in accordance with the law, much less that he presided at such meetings.
He added that the EC had been restructured and asked for more time to implement the law.
Reply
Sampson Lardy Anyenini, the plaintiffs' attorney, objected to the motion, saying that it had no basis in law and that its acceptance would affect the effective administration of the justice.
He added that the application had been filed late and that the EC, in its efforts to obtain court leniency, did not submit any project "regardless of the quality of their implementation" to demonstrate compliance.
He added that the EC had been well established since last July and that the Commission had held a referendum on the creation of the six new regions, which showed that the EC did not want to comply with the court ruling.
He therefore urged the court to grant the EC three months to comply with the order if the court was willing to grant the claim.
He added that the EC must come up with a convincing roadmap and action plan if the motion is accepted.
The court, chaired by Judge Nicholas Abodakpi, remanded the case to 8 May 2019 to rule.
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