Mrs Jean Mensa — EC Chairperson

One-day voter registration today - NDC court action unsuccessful

Daily Graphic Politics Oct - 01 - 2020 , 08:49 2 minutes read

The Electoral Commission (EC) will undertake a one-day voter registration exercise in all its district offices across the country today.

The exercise will afford eligible citizens who could not register in the just-ended exercise the opportunity to do so.

“Eligible citizens who take advantage of this exercise will be able vote in the December 2020 general election,” a statement issued by the EC in Accra last night said.

Suit

The exercise follows the Accra High Court’s dismissal of a suit by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) challenging the decision of the EC to reopen the voters register for a day.

The court, in its ruling, said the NDC should have filed the suit on notice, so that the EC could have been served.

Meanwhile, the Daily Graphic has gathered that the NDC intends to re-file the suit, this time on notice.

The NDC wanted the court to grant an injunction to restrain the EC from reopening the register without first gazetting it.

The party also wanted the court to order the EC to comply with the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2016 (C.I. 91) for the intended registration exercise.

The NDC, in its suit, said it decided to challenge the registration exercise because the EC did not publish a 21-days notice of the planned exercise in the gazette, in accordance with the law governing elections in Ghana.

In a statement, the party said it was, among other things, seeking from the court “a declaration that the Electoral Commission has acted ultra vires in its attempt to reopen and/or conduct registration of voters scheduled for Thursday, October 1, 2020 when the EC had not caused to be published in the gazette 21 days’ notice of the voters registration to the political parties and the general public.”

In the writ, which named the EC and the Attorney-General as first and second respondents, respectively, the NDC argued that the latter acted beyond its powers in its attempt to reopen the voters register for those who could not register in the first exercise to do so.