Court rejects motion for contempt of ROPAA against EC Boss

General News of Thursday, July 11, 2019

Source: kasapafmonline.com

2019-07-11

The Accra High Court dismissed another contempt petition against the President of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, who had asked the Court to convict her for contempt of court for what the applicants had alleged to be an intentional refusal on his part and other commissioners to implement the law amending the representation of peoples (ROPAA).

Prior to the decision of the Court today, July 11, 2019, EC President Jean Mensa filed an affidavit against the motion for contempt of court of Kofi A. Boateng, PhD, and four other people in which she stated: "On 18 December 2017, the High Court of the Division of Human Rights, chaired by H. Exc. Anthony K. Yeboah, J (as he was then) rendered a judgment for the implementation of Law 699 by the Ghana Electoral Commission within 12 months from 1 January, 2018 ".

"I repeat that, in the context of the consecutive orders, the Honorable Court has ordered that, in the event that the Commissioners or the Ghana Electoral Commission, for a legitimate reason, can not comply with the orders of the court, the Commission publishes, within 30 days after the expiry of twelve calendar months, the reasons why the public has not complied with it ".

The affidavit continued: "I say that at the time of the judgment, in 2017, I was not president of the electoral commission. I was then appointed in July 2018 to the presidency of the electoral commission and I was not immediately seized of the necessary court orders for the implementation of Law 699 when I was appointed ".

"I repeat that after receiving court orders after my appointment in July 2018 and ensuring that measures were taken to comply with court orders, I, through my lawyers, filed a request for an extension of time within a reasonable time. the operationalization of Law 699 would take place and, in that request, I explained the reasons for the Election Commission's inability to respect the deadlines set in the judgment of the above-mentioned court. Attachment # 1 attached is a copy of the application for extension of time filed January 30, 2019 ".

Ms. Jean Mensa denied that "in the performance of my official duties as President of the Ghana Electoral Commission, I acted deliberately in order to discredit or disregard her. administration of justice. Subject to what has been admitted previously, I deny each of the allegations of fact contained in the Applicant's affidavit in support of this application, as if they were identical to those alleged in extensor and denied in mbad. " .

The court of Justice Vivian Amoah did not immediately explain the reasons for the rejection but asked the parties to seek the reasons for the decision rejecting the application. On the question of costs, the Court did not issue any costs order as it stated that it did not want to dissuade citizens from going to court to challenge state officials.