General News of Thursday, 25 June 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Full Judgment on the NDC versus EC case

Jean Mensa, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) Jean Mensa, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC)

The National Democratic Congress in May, 2020 sued the Electoral Commission at the Supreme Court over its decision to compile a new voters register ahead of the 2020 elections.

The opposition party stated their stance against the EC’s decision stating that the exercise was unnecessary and costly. The EC being adamant, indicated its resolve to proceed with its decision.

Following this, the NDC sought an order from the court to stop the EC from compiling a new voters register and an alternative order declaring as illegal the decision of the electoral body not to consider the old voter ID cards as a proof of citizenship for registering.

But the Apex court gave them a directive to make a choice on which of their two reliefs they wanted a decision on.

It is for this reason the NDC dropped the case which questions the power of the Electoral Commission to compile a new register.

The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision merged the two cases against the EC’s voters registration exercise.

A private citizen Mark Takyi-Banso was also seeking same relief as the NDC.

Two reliefs out of the 8 reliefs were granted to the NDC by the Apex court. These are the reliefs two and three.

Below is the relief the NDC was seeking



However the court ruled and below is the judgment