Court rules on EC contempt case Nov 24

 The Tema High Court “B” yesterday set November 24, 2023, to deliver ruling on contempt case against the Elec­toral Commission (EC) brought before it by a private citizen, over the just-end limited voters’ registration exercise by the EC.

Ms Precious Ayitah, a resident of Otsebleku, in the Greater Accra Region, took three officials of the commission; Jean Mensa, Chairperson of the EC, and two deputy chairmen, Dr Eric Bossman Asare and Sam­uel Tettey, to the court over the exercise that took place across the country recently.

The court presided over by Justice Patricia Quansah directed parties in the case to file their written submissions by No­vember 16, 2023.

The EC Chairperson and the two deputy chairmen, were both present in court for going ahead with the limited registration exercise at the various EC district offices, despite an injunc­tion filed at the court, aimed at impressing on the commission to suspend the exercise.

Ms Ayitah was of the view that the motion on notice and interlocutory injunction had been served on the respon­dents on September 8, 2023, aimed at restrain­ing the EC from carrying on with the limited regis­tration exercise in the district offices of the commission, however, the EC went ahead with the exercise.

She said the action of the EC was “contemptuous” which should not go unpunished by a custodial sentence.

The limited voter registration exercise by the EC ended on Mon­day, October 2, across all the 268 district offices of the commission.

The exercise, which was meant for eligible Ghanaian voters, forms part of the EC’s preparations towards the conduct of the 2024 general election.

The registration exercise afford­ed Ghanaians who have attained the age of 18 years, since the last registration in 2020 and others who are more than 18 years, but for various reasons couldn’t reg­ister during the 2020 registration exercise an opportunity to do so.

The EC had initially target­ed 1.35 million registrants, but this was revised downwards to 800,000.

The commission announced that it has registered some 673,276 new voters within 16 days from the beginning of the exercise, and was optimistic about meeting the new target.

Meanwhile, some individuals and political parties were dis­pleased about the exercise.

 FROM DZIFA TETTEH TAY, TEMA

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