A political scientist with the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo has described the verdict of the Supreme Court on the case between the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Democratic Congress(NDC) as not “conciliatory”, noting that the decision is a winner-takes-all decision.
The NDC had wanted the Supreme Court to declare that the current voter’s ID card could be used as a source document which qualifies one to register in the forthcoming compilation of a new register while the EC had sought to exclude the current voter’s ID.
The Supreme Court, in today’s ruling, said that the EC could go ahead with the compilation of the new register as scheduled, which excludes the voter’s ID as a source document.
This, Prof. Gyampo, says is not conciliatory as he had expected: “I was expecting the Supreme Court Ruling to be conciliatory. But as far as I am concerned, it’s a Winner-Takes-All decision. The EC will compile a new register and u cannot use any old Voter ID Card as source document for registration, finito!” He averred on social media.
There was initial jubilation by members of the NDC after the Supreme Court verdict following a misinterpretation that the Supreme Court had ruled that the existing voter ID could be used in the upcoming compilation of a new register.