Court orders EC to stop voters’-register planning workshop

An Accra High Court has granted an ex parte motion that prevents the Electoral Commission (EC) from holding a planned workshop on a new voter registration exercise at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region.

The court granted the demand of the Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam Nartey George, to freeze the workshop, which is meant to strategise for the execution of a new voters’ register. The compilation of the new register has received protests from most of the country’s major opposition parties. Eighteen (18) top civil society organisations jointly opposed the compilation of the register, saying it was needless.

But the EC appears poised to proceed with it. The court order given by Justice John Eugene Nyante Nyadu temporarily freezes the EC’s decision, which also comes at a time the government had banned all forms of social gatherings.

Below is the injection the court granted.

 

The EC had planned to hold a national planning meeting and key trainers training workshop to prepare and plan for the upcoming registration exercise.

It scheduled the meeting for April  24-29  at the City Escape Hotel, Prampram, in the Greater Accra Region, which also happened to be the constituency of the legislator.

The meeting, as announced by the EC, is expected to be held in three different batches in order to observe the social distancing protocols amidst the outbreak of the coronavirus in Ghana.

In a memo, the EC directed all its regional directors to submit their regional reports on the 2019 District Level Elections (DLE) as part of the requirements for the programme.

“The meeting will be attended by Commissioners, HQ Directors, Regional Directors, Deputy Regional Directors, Deputy HQ Directors, and some HQ senior officers. Participants will arrive a day before the meeting and leave a day after,” portions of a memo signed by the EC’s Director of Training, Michael Boadu, said.

“Due to the state’s directive on social gatherings, the meeting will be conducted in three batches of 25 participants per batch and each batch will have two different meeting days,” the EC said in the statement.

But the MPs court action appeared to have torpedoed the EC’s plans, albeit temporarily.

Mr George took to Facebook to explain his reason for going to court.

“That decision by a Commissioner, who is a lawyer, and her deputy, who is a political science University Don, is most unfortunate as it is a flagrant disregard for law and an abuse of legal reasoning. As Member of Parliament for the area and a responsible citizen who respects the laws of the land, I felt obliged to seek legal representation to stop what amounts to an illegal action by a Constitutional body.

“I am committed to continue representing my people in the best way possible especially in these trying pandemic times. This is my modest contribution to ensuring the rule of law is respected and that we overcome the COVID-19 scourge.

“It is my hope that persons entrusted with public responsibility and who ought to act in the best interests of the citizenry are so minded. We need to remain Citizens and not spectators,” he said.