Court throws out case against Gender Minister over Voter's ID Card

The Agona Swedru Magistrate’s Court has thrown out a case filed to challenge the eligibility of Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs Cynthia Mamle Morrison over her voter’s Identification card.

It was alleged that she used an unidentified house at Wawase, a suburb of Agona Swedru to register during the recent EC’s mass voter registration exercise.

But the Wawase Ward Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Mr Eric Yankey filed a case against the MP claiming she has breached the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 91, passed by Parliament this year which required that a person must stay in a community for at least four years or more before he or she could register there.

According to the claim made by the NDC Ward Chairman, the house of the MP was too bushy for habitation and alleged that it had been sold by the MP.

He also stated that the MP does not participate in communal labour in the area.

The four Defense Counsels of the MP led by Mr Alexander Kojo Kom Abban who is also the Deputy of Minister Communication and MP for Gomoa West argued that the case filed against MP had no merit and prayed the court to dismiss it.

The Defense counsel further argued that the statement made by the applicant that the house owned by the MP was too bushy had no justification.

Mr Abban told the court that the argument raised by the NDC Ward Chairman that the MP used a different house to register in 2016 registration was untenable and should not be accepted by the Court.

The Defense Counsel also put up a strong argument, saying the MP had about two houses at Agona Swedru and could choose to sleep in any of them for security reasons.

Mr Abban further stated that the claim by the applicant that the house had been sold by the MP was not supported by any documents.

He said Mrs Morrison did a lot of work in the community and prayed the Court to dismiss the claim that she dif does not participate in communal labour.

The Court presided over by Mr Isaac Appiatu, said the applicant could not provide any strong evidence against Mrs Morrison who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Agona West.

Taking that into consideration, the court threw out the case.

It therefore urged the EC to allow Mrs Morrison make use of her voters’ ID card on December7, 2020.