Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said that the Supreme Court’s directive to the Electoral Commission on the compilation of the Voters’ Register does not call for jubilation.
The Supreme Court on Thursday June 4, 2020 ordered the EC to provide a legal basis for refusing to accept the existing Voter’s ID Cards as part of requirements for compilation of the new voters’ register.
This has made some persons, particularly, opposing views on the new register believe the Supreme Court is going to halt the EC from going ahead with the registration.
In an interview on Citi Fm however, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said the directive to the EC is consistent with the fundamental principles of law.
“The basic principle in law called ‘Audi alteram partem’ says you cannot pronounce judgment on a matter without hearing from the other side. So if the Supreme Court is going to make a determination on an application that has been made about something that the Electoral Commission is doing, it only stands to reason that they will request to hear from the EC so that they are informed before they come to a certain ruling or judgment. And I think anybody who knows how the legal system works in this country will actually appreciate that this is how the Supreme Court has gone by such issues,” he stated.
“I don’t know why anyone would jubilate over that and as I have explained, you cannot come to a judgment on a matter without hearing from the other side,” the Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi stressed.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) dragged the EC to the apex court in a bid stop them from compiling a new voter’s register ahead of the December Polls.
In the March 2020 writ filed by the party, it argued that the EC lacks the power to go ahead with its plans because it can only “compile a register of voters only once, and thereafter revise it periodically, as may be determined by law.”
Source: GhanaFeed.com
