EC boss likely to face Supreme Court wrath – Asante Bediatuo

Nana Asante Bediatuo, counsel for Abu Ramadan, the former National Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC), who sued the Electoral Commission (EC) over the credibility of the current voter’s register, has hinted that he may return to the Supreme Court to pray the court to apply sanctions against the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Madam Charlotte Osei, for disobeying the Court.

He explained that it would constitute a high crime if the EC disobeys the directives, which were given by the Supreme Court under Article 2 of the 1992 Constitution.

Article 2 Clause (3) of the 1992 Constitution states that: “any person or group of persons to whom an order or direction is addressed under Clause (2) of this article by the Supreme Court, shall duly obey and carry out the terms of the order or direction.”

Clause (4) of the same Article goes on to state: “Failure to obey or carry out the terms of an order or direction made or given under Clause (2) of this article constitutes a high crime under this Constitution and shall, in the case of the President or the Vice President, constitute a ground for removal from office under this Constitution.”

According to Clause (5) of the same article, “a person convicted of a high crime under Clause (4) of this Article shall; (a) be liable to imprisonment not exceeding ten years without the option of a fine; and (b) not to be eligible for election, or for appointment, to any public office for ten years beginning with the date of the expiration of the term of imprisonment.”

Quoting those references from the 1992 Constitution to back his argument, Nana Asante Bediatuo said that: “we have the judgment so we will enforce it.”

Speaking in an interview with Oman FM, Nana Asante Bediatuo described as worrying that the EC has, since the ruling, not demonstrated its readiness to implement the directives given by the Supreme Court. He indicated that he would write officially to the EC Chairperson to find out what the EC intends to do about the ruling.

He said he would give the EC some days to respond to his letter in order to determine his next line of action since the country is left with a few months for the general elections. “We will serve and wait for some time, and if we don’t hear from the EC, we will proceed to the Supreme Court to pray the Court to enforce the penalties for disobeying their order.”

Nana Asante Bediatuo stressed the need for the EC to go to the Supreme Court and seek clarification if they did not understand the ruling. On Thursday May 5, the Supreme Court ordered the EC to remove 600,000 names of dead persons from the current voter’s register.

Further, the Court ordered the EC to delete the names of over 4 million people who registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card, and thus asked the EC to give the affected persons the opportunity to register again using appropriate identifications. This was after Abu Ramadan had filed a suit to challenge the EC over the credibility of the voter’s register.

Ghanaians will be going to the polls for the November 7 elections that have been widely regarded as crucial and close, for both presidential candidates of the ruling government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and their parliamentary candidates.

The country’s electoral roll, which is bloated, has generated huge disagreement t between the NPP and NDC with opposition NPP accusing the EC and NDC of conspiring to rig the elections in favour of President Mahama.

The Supreme Court’s ruling was viewed by many Ghanaians as the right step to settle the confusion which had been created by the current voter’s register. However, two weeks after the ruling, the EC has not given clear indication as to how it wants to implement the directives, and this is making some Ghanaians to get worried and suspicious.