The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana says they did not plan to cause financial loss to the state following the suspension of the District level elections.
The Supreme Court on Friday 27th February, 2015 suspended the District Assembly election, describing it as unconstitutional and not backed by law.
Member of Parliament for Efutu constituency, Alex Afenyo-Markin took the EC to court after his client, Benjamin Eyi Mensah, a fisherman based in Winneba in the Central Region, was disallowed by the EC from submitting his nomination forms to contest for the Assembly Elections on the ground that nominations had closed.
The MP for Effutu, argued before the court that Article 51 of the 1992 Constitution makes it mandatory for District Assembly Elections to be backed by a Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) but currently, there was no C.I. backing the elections slated for March 3.
The Supreme Court, after listening to arguments from both sides ruled that the EC should stop the elections and start all over again with a legally passed and accepted C.I.
After the ruling, several groups and individuals have been asking the Attorney General to charge the EC for causing financial loss to the state.
Notable among them is Alex Afenyo-Markin, the lawyer who got the Supreme Court to cancel the election which would have been held today, March 3, 2015.
He said “the Electoral Commission was given all the necessary warning that it was doing something unconstitutional, but they ignored with arrogance and adopted a ‘yen tie obia’ attitude and that has not only caused the several aspirants huge loss of money but the State as well. It is clear that the cancellation of the District Assembly Elections across the country just a few days to the polls would cause the State some huge financial losses and this should be blamed on the Electoral Commission and whoever in that Commission willfully decided to do the wrong thing that has led to this financial loss…the AG ought to look into the matter and make recommendations to prevent a future recurrence, else this wrong attitude can be replayed in 2016 or future elections.”
But speaking to Kwami Sefa Kayi on PEACE FM Morning Show ‘Kokrokoo’, the Public Affairs Director of the EC, Christian Owusu Parry said they did not plan for this to happen.
He said they were confident that they were on the right track but once the Supreme Court has given its ruling, they have to abide by it.
He agreed that a lot of money have gone down the drain however; there is nothing they can do than to start the process all over.
“It was not intentional to cause financial loss to the state…It was not our wish for this to happen…we didn’t plan to intentionally cause this. But it is a ruling so we have to abide by it,” he added.
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