Judges asked to be impartial in handling election cases
A supreme court judge, Mr Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonney, has charged judges and magistrates to be objective and impartial when called upon to handle election-related cases.
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He explained that since election issues in the country evoked emotions, there was the need for them to follow strict judicial tenets in handling all such cases to ensure fairness and peace for the development of the country.
Justice Baffoe-Bonney said this at a one-day training for selected magistrates and judges from the northern part of the country, on regulation 2016 (C. I. 91) in Kumasi.
Training
The training was aimed at equipping the judges with the law, preparing their minds and ensuring that they were ready to handle election-related cases such as the recent registration exercise and other issues that might crop up during the election.
In attendance were 93 magistrates, Circuit and High Court Judges from the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, a part of the Western as well as the whole of the three northern regions.
The participants were taken through the entire C.I . 91 and other related issues.
Justice Baffoe-Bonney said now that the issues of voter registration were ongoing, “you could soon be called upon to handle cases based on what happened in your area”.
He said since election issues were time bound, it would be very necessary for the judges to put other cases in abeyance and ensure that they met the deadline for the election cases.
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A section of the Magistrates, Circuit and High Court Judges at the training in KUmasi,
Regulation C.I.91
According to the C.I .91, after the registration exercise, a District Registration Review Committee (DRRC) shall be established with membership coming from the registered political parties active in the area, the district electoral officer, police commander, district director of education and a representative of the traditional authority.
The DRRC (is a special district committee established by law) has the mandate to sit and review issues in relation to challenges of people who wanted to register but had their qualification challenged due to various reasons.
After the DRRC had given its decision and any of the parties was not satisfied, it could appeal by writing to the commission and an appeal would be sent to the Chief Registration Review Officer, in this instance a High Court Judge, in the region to handle the case.