General News of Monday, 10 December 2012

Source: GNA

Chief Justice Sets Up Complaints' Secretariats for Post Elections Petitions

The Judicial Service on the authority and direction of Mrs Justice Georgina T. Wood, the Chief Justice of Ghana, has established two public complaints secretariats in anticipation of post-2012 election petitions.

They are the Chief Justice’s Secretariat and the Office of the Chief Registrar-General.

This was contained in a press release signed by Justice Alex B. Poku-Acheampong, Judicial Secretary and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

The mandate of the two secretariats will be to receive and file complaints and queries from the public on pending election petitions before the courts after the December 7th general elections and take the necessary action on them.



It said the purpose of the arrangement was to ensure that post-election petitions placed before the courts, were determined in a timely fashion.

The two secretariats can be reached by email on elections@judicial.gov.gh and edisputes@judicial.gov.gh and by telephone on the following hotlines: 0203356029 and 0203356030.

The release said the initiative of the Chief Justice was part of a raft of measures that the Judicial Service had taken towards the speedy disposal of election disputes.

It said the Service in 2008 produced a Manual on Election Adjudication in Ghana ahead of the general elections of that year to serve as a useful guide for Judges in adjudicating electoral disputes.

It said a 2nd edition, an improvement on the maiden one, has been produced this year, which includes subject matters that were not previously covered in the first edition in addition to a digest of some previously decided cases and a list of statutes that are applicable to the conduct of elections in Ghana.