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Private Legal Practitioner and member of Occupy Ghana, Lawyer Ace Ankomah has said that the Electoral Commission (EC) would be charged for contempt of court if they go ahead to do exactly what they have purposed in their hearts, ignoring the ruling of the Supreme Court.

“...the EC has no mandate to say that because they have not passed the law or the process to do with the ruling from the Supreme Court, what they (Supreme Court) have said does not exist. If the EC believes that the process of exhibition would delete unwanted names in the voters register, they should go ahead; this could be categorized as a ‘high crime’ against the EC,” he clarified.

“How would the EC delete names by exhibiting the register, how would I know that this person registered with an NHIS card or not? He asked in an interview with PEACE FM’s ‘krokokoo’ host Kwame Sefa-Kayi.

He noted that all the EC has to do is to put in place the mechanisms that would help it comply by the ruling given to it by the Supreme Court than try to rubbish the orders of the apex court.

Lawyer Ankomah asserted that “If the EC is saying that they have no laws to help it comply with the Supreme Court’s decision, it should pass the law that would make it act as such. So, if it is parliament that must pass the law, it must do so because the EC cannot render a whole Supreme Court’s decision and its processes null and void, to say I don’t have the processes. It would be charged for contempt of court for going it own way.”

The Supreme Court ruling is to simply delete and re-register names of persons who registered with the NHIS card, because such an identity is not a valid mode of citizenship since it can be owned by an ordinary foreigner who has stayed in the country for more than 6 months.

 “The EC should just go back to the Supreme for further clarification; if there is something they don’t understand on the ruling given them than doing things in their own way to suit themselves,” he added.