The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has withdrawn from the Supreme Court its case against the Electoral Commission of Ghana over its mandate to compile a new voters register, MyNewsGh.com can report. The NDC was virtually forced by the Supreme Court to take that decision after the court told NDC lawyers that a party cannot be seeking a relief and also asked to be granted another relief in the alternative.
In simple terms, the court said the NDC cannot ask court to declare the attempt by the EC to compile a new registration exercise as unconstitutional and in the second leg ask that the court declares the decision of the EC to exclude an existing voter ID as a form of identification for the exercise as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court asked the NDC to select one case and strike out the other.
Lawyer for the NDC, Mr Godwin Tamakloe therefore striked down the case against EC’s mandate to compile the register. This means the case before the Apex Court now is about the Voters ID card exclusion. The NDC in March, this year, invoked the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to interpret the constitution with a case that it was unconstitutional for the EC to reject an existing voters ID as a prerequisite for the upcoming voter registration exercise.
It is the contention of the NDC that it is unconstitutional for the EC to reject an existing voter ID as it will disenfranchise many Ghanaians which is a violation of Article 42 of the 1992 Constitution. The NDC further argues that per Article 45 of the 1992 Constitution the EC can only compile a voter registration once and periodically revise it.
