R-L Justice Sule Gbadegbe, Justice Victor Jones Dotse, Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood, General Olusegun Obasanjo
Three thousand voters at Kasena Nankana East District of the Upper East region, who are currently going through the biometric registration exercise, cannot vote in the impending elections, according to Justice Sule Gbadegbe, a Supreme Court judge.
The judge made this disclosure after a question was posed by Musah Fatau, Director of Political Affairs ECOWAS, who was part of a five member delegation led by former Nigerian President General Olusegun Obasanyo that paid a courtesy call on the Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood.
Musah Fatau posed a question as to whether the short time left for the EC to register the 3000 people would not pose a problem to the whole electoral process, and in a response Justice Gbadegbe said although Electoral Commission (EC) boss was trying to purge himself from the flaw by providing three days to register them, they could not be admitted as eligible voters under CI 72.
Regulation 9 (5) of CI 72 prohibits the Electoral Commission from including in the register ?the name of the person who qualifies to register as a voter for an election but who registers less than sixty days to that election.?
The CI therefore mandates that persons who attain age 18 or above cannot be registered to vote in a pending election once the duration of the date of registration on the voting date is less than 60 days.
The Chief Justice admitted that it was a bad situation but indicated that in the interest of the state nothing could be done, especially when the said CI has not been amended.
She explained that if they are allowed to vote, the court would have to cancel the results of the district because they are not qualified to vote.
She assured them that the judiciary was ready to handle any dispute that may arise during this period.
Five out of the 250-member ECOWAS Election Observation Mission called on the Chief Justice to ascertain preparation being made by the judiciary towards a peaceful election.
According to General Obasanyo, the objective of the team is to ensure that peace and stability reigns after the desired free and fair election.
Mr. Obasanyo observed that Ghana seemed to be the vanguard of democracy in the West African sub-region.
The former President expressed happiness about the Kumasi Declaration and commended the presidential aspirants for signing the peace pact and pledging to work to ensure violence-free campaign and elections.
Justice Wood thanked the team for their support after taking them thorough the justice system in Ghana and measures being put in place to achieve a peaceful election.
She informed them that the judiciary had formed an election adjudication team to handle particular parliamentary election disputes, stressing that the system is to ensure the speedy and expeditious trial of cases.
Other members of the delegation included Cyrilla Tapoko, AU Co-coordinator, AU Observer Mission, Iddrissa Kamara, Political Affairs officer AU, and Salamatu Husseini-Suleman commissioner for political Affairs Peace and Security of ECOWAS. The team would be in the country till December 13 if there is no run-off.
Supreme Court Justices, Victor Jones Dotse, Sule Gbadegbe and the Judiciary Secretary, Justice Alex Poku Acheampong joined the Chief Justice to host them.
By Mary Anane
