Ghanaian Lawyer and Politician, Alex Segbefia has said that the Supreme Court’s ruling on the case between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Electoral Commission (EC) has left some ambiguity in the minds of some Ghanaians.
On Thursday, June 25, 2020, the Supreme Court decided that the existing voter ID card and birth certificates cannot be used as proof of identity to register in the upcoming voter registration exercise. This judgement effectively throws out the challenge by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and a private citizen, Mark Takyi-Banson, who were before the Court questioning the Electoral Commission’s (EC) decision to compile an entirely new register and excluding the existing voter ID.
However, Alex Segbefia in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show (HMS) noted that the ruling was characterized by some uncertainties.
“The judgement has left some ambiguity in the minds of quite a few. I say this because you will notice that various interpretations have been put on what the judgement says and some even feel that there may be some contradictions. But that is because of the potential lack of clarity in some areas, which may have created some of these misgivings and so if you actually get the final judgement it becomes difficult to be clear as to certain areas especially with regards to the relief granted by the court”, he said.
He furthered that while the Supreme Court was very clear that the EC could go ahead with the compilation of the new voters’ register, there was no “clear cut statement” which revealed whether the current or previous voters’ card can be included in the new registration or not.
In respect to the compilation of a new register by the EC, the Supreme Court has stated that he EC was exercising its discretion in the discharge of its constitutional mandate in cleaning the voters register and “should be deemed as authorized to be acting within the law and the regulations therein, and cannot be faulted even if it is considered that there is a more efficient model or method available.”
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah