The chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) and possibly all the seven Commissioners could possibly be facing contempt charges if what is emerging from their stables is anything to go by.
The Supreme Court recently ordered the Commission, headed by Charlotte Osei, to remove the names of persons who do not qualify from the existing voter register.
Even though Abu Ramadan, Evans Nimako and their lawyers who filed the case in court have said that persons who registered with National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards should be removed, the elections organising body insists the court had not asked it to remove their names.
EC’s Resolve
The EC has since resolved not to delete the names of those who registered with NHIS cards from the electoral roll, though it accepts the ruling of the Supreme Court which ordered that the Commission, among other things, takes steps immediately to delete or, as it is popularly termed, ‘clean’ the current register of illegal voters to comply with the provisions of the 1992 Constitution and applicable laws of Ghana.
That, according to the EC, is because “for persons who registered with NHIS cards, such registrations were lawful at the time of registration and the subsequent declaration of unconstitutionality in the earlier Abu Ramadan case does not automatically render them void.”
This was contained in a statement issued by the EC yesterday after a meeting with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC).
On Thursday, May 5, the Supreme Court ordered the EC to also delete from the electoral roll names of dead persons and minors who have not established qualification to be on the register.
That was after Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako, through their lawyer, Nana Asante Bediatuo, had filed a case to the effect that “the current register of voters which contains the names of persons who have not established qualification to be registered is not reasonably accurate or credible.”
In spite of the fact that the court ordered that “the Electoral Commission takes steps immediately to delete or, as is popularly known, ‘clean” the current register of voters to comply with the provisions of the 1992 Constitution and applicable laws of Ghana; [and] that any person whose name is deleted from the register of voters by the Electoral Commission pursuant to order (a) above be given the opportunity to register under the law,” the EC insists that any decision to remove persons who registered with NHIS cards would have the effect of disenfranchising the individuals and that such registrants should only be deleted by means of processes established under the law.
Lawyer’s Decision
But Abu Ramadan and his lawyer, Nana Asante Bediatuo, have hinted of their intention to go back to the Supreme Court not just to seek interpretation, but to also cite the EC for contempt.
Moments after the EC had put out the decision, Abu, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, said: “This is a sad day for Ghana; that the personal, parochial and selfish interest of individuals overrides the collective interest of the entire Ghanaian people.
“I have instructed my lawyers to proceed to the Supreme Court because you will find in the ruling that the court makes reference to the fact that refusal to implement the orders of the court amounts to criminal prosecution. It means it is a high crime not to obey the orders of the court.”
For that reason, he indicated, “We are proceeding to go and file contempt charges against all the seven Commissioners of the Electoral Commission; we will not leave a single one out, active and non-active ones, because they can’t flout and throw the ruling of the Supreme Court into the dustbin.”
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