The Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Godfred Dame, has indicated that the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) erred when it stopped the people of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lipke and Lolobi (SALL) in the Oti Region from voting in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

According to him, the voters in SALL areas should have been allowed to vote in the parliament election for the Buem Constituency.

Dame, who made these remarks while answering urgent questions in parliament on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, said that even though the EC took the decision for voters in SALL to vote in the presidential elections to avert a constitutional crisis, its decision was not “constitutionally sound”.

He added that the decision not to allow the people of SALL also questions the legitimacy of the current Member of Parliament (MP) for Buem.

“In order to prevent what it considered the occurrence of a constitutional crisis if the residents of the Guan District, i.e. the SALL areas, voted for a member of Parliament in the Buem Constituency (part of Jaskian District), on the eve of the 7th December General Elections, the Electoral Commission directed the residents of the Guan District to only vote in the Presidential and not the Parliamentary election.

“In my view, the decision of the Electoral Commission to prevent the SALL people from voting in the Buem Constituency for a Member of Parliament was not constitutionally sound and, with the greatest respect, raised genuine questions about the legitimacy of the Buem Parliamentary contest. The SALL people should have voted as part of the Buem Constituency for a Member of Parliament,” he said.

He indicated that the MP for Buem, Kofi Iddie Adams, is currently being sued in the High Court in Hohoe, regarding the constitutionality of his win with the plaintiffs seeking the annulment of the election.

The attorney general also explained that the EC could not establish a new constituency of the people of SALL because parliament had gone on recess.

“When Parliament resumed sitting on 14th December, 2020, the Electoral Commission could not lay the amendment to C.I. 128, for want of the mandatory twenty-one (21) sitting days for same to come into force before the dissolution of the 7th Parliament on the midnight of Wednesday, 6th January, 2021. The Commission therefore was compelled to wait for the 8th Parliament to be sworn-in on 7th January, 2021 before the Constitutional Instrument to amend C. I. 128 could be laid before Parliament.”

BAI/OGB

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