Court blocks Let My Vote Count Alliance from demonstrating at EC Tuesday
An Accra Circuit Court has granted the police the authority to restrain organisers of the Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) from demonstrating on Tuesday at the office of the Electoral Commission (EC).
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The police had argued that they had received intelligence that some criminal elements would attempt to destabilise Accra on Tuesday - a development they said would inhibit their capacity to offer protection to the demonstrators.
Siding with the police, the court said: “It is hereby ordered that the organisers of Let My Vote Count Alliance are restrained from demonstrating on the 29th of September 2015 but fix another date in October to give the police adequate time to prepare to ensure the safety of the demonstrators and the general public.”
The Circuit Court’s ruling comes as a blow the LMVCA organisers, who had earlier on received clearance from an Accra Circuit Court to demonstrate at the EC.
The demonstration forms part of the LMVCA’s effort to, ahead of the 2016 election, pressure the EC to ditch the current voters’ register, which the group says is fraught with anomalies.
A similar planned demonstration and picketing at the EC two weeks ago was thwarted when the police secured a court order preventing the group from going near the EC office.
Instead, the LMVCA demonstrators were allowed to embark on a protest march from the Obra spot through the Central Business District to the Hearts Park on the High Street, where they were expected to present their petition to a representative of the EC.
However, the demonstration turned bloody after the police man-handled some of the protesters who veered off the approved route.
