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The Supreme Court of Ghana should set clear parameters for filing election petitions with the Land Supreme Court. The Supreme Court must not open its doors to political candidates and their parties to abuse its processes and jurisdiction.
An aggrieved citizen should not simply be allowed to exercise their right by bringing an insignificant and easily resolved case to the Supreme Court. The current election petition, filed in the Supreme Court, did not meet the basic parameters to challenge the validity of a presidential election. It could have been resolved by petitioning the Parliament of Ghana asking the Chairperson of the Election Commission to account for her management for holding a key public office.
The provisions of Article 64, paragraph 1, at first glance, are not restrictive enough to limit the filing of cases. So this gives leeway for filing petitions that fall short of the accepted standards for this purpose. The Court and other authorities concerned with setting deadlines for sending a petition for the presidential election should learn from the success of setting deadlines for dispatching a trial and its use in the process. 2021 case, to formulate a policy for defining quality parameters for presidential election petitions in the country. It is convincingly clear that the petition for the 2021 presidential election did not reach an appropriate threshold to be heard by the Supreme Court.
The powers of Article 64, paragraph 1, should not be invoked, in fact should not be allowed to be invoked, if there is no truthful evidence satisfying the provisions of Article 63, paragraph 3 , which states that “A person can only be elected President of Ghana if, in the presidential election, the number of votes cast in his favor exceeds fifty percent of the total number of valid votes cast in the election.” The requirements of Article 63 (3) will only be met by the petition of an aggrieved citizen if the elections are conducted contrary to the laws of Ghana and other rules and conventions governing the conduct of elections in Ghana, which will then open the way to invoke the powers of article 64, paragraph 1, of the Constitution. Such breaches of the law must have a material impact on the total number of valid votes cast for the person so declared as President-elect.
The Supreme Court case did not provide grounds explicitly indicating violations of the laws, rules and other conventions that govern the conduct of presidential elections and elections in general. The petitioner only complained about an error in the declaration of the final results gathered. The petition clearly failed to cite actual violations of Ghana’s electoral laws.
The petitioner’s lawyer argued that the chairperson of the electoral commission should be obliged to set up the witness stand in order to account for her management in the exercise of public office. The country’s highest court should never offer a platform to resolve these fundamental issues, which can be addressed by the Parliament of Ghana through petitions. In fact, the petitioner could have been given an undeniable opportunity to address accountability issues through the Parliament of Ghana.
Violations of Ghana’s electoral laws, through irregularities as seen in the 2012 elections, have serious implications for Article 63 (3) and later 64 (1). Therefore, any petition for the presidential election should indicate materially, without fail, how the petition meets the requirements of Article 63 (3). Simply, the powers of Article 64, paragraph 1, cannot be invoked in any way whatsoever if the request does not show, in part or in whole, how the provisions of Article 63, paragraph 3, are violated. .
Petitions for the presidential election, besides wasting the precious time of the court and everyone else, puts unnecessary and excessive pressure on the peace of a country and also makes investors very fearful due to the uncertainties surrounding their decisions. results.
Applications devoid of merit abuse legal process and the exclusive jurisdiction of the tribunal. There should be appropriate guidelines and parameters for the future filing of the presidential election petition to protect the processes and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Ghana from intentional abuse.
BY Emmanuel Kwabena Wucharey
Tutor in economics, lawyer and passionate about religion.
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