Koforidua High Court registrar thwarts effort to injunct EC over voters registration

Attempt by a resident of Digya Island in Afram Plains North in Eastern region to stop the Electoral Commission from going ahead to conduct the voter’s registration exercise has been thwarted at the Koforidua High Court on Monday September 11,2023.

Counsel for the applicant Lawyer Isaac Minta Larbi was frustrated by the Registrar in his attempt to file originating processes against the EC regarding the upcoming voters registration exercise of the EC scheduled to take place on September 12,2023.

Lawyer Isaac Minta Larbi issued an application to be filed early Monday morning for and on behalf of his client who contacted him on Friday regarding the fact that because of his location on the island there was no way he could travel to Donkorkrom where the EC district office is located to take part in his registration to exercise his civic right to vote.

In a document sighted by Starr FM the plaintiff said “That I reside at Xedro, Digya Island in the Afram Plains North District in the Eastern Region of Ghana, which has no direct route to the district office of the Electoral Commission in Donkorkrom.

That the district office of the Electoral Commission which is located at Donkorkrom is not accessible from where I live at Xedro, Digya Island.

That if I even have to manage to find a way there I would have to cross the Volta Lake from Digya Island using the pontoon which would travel for about three (3) hours on the lake alone, before getting to the nearest village where I would now have to ask for directions which would take me through places I have never been before and cannot go through as a teen”.

The plaintiff continued “that the villages surrounding Digya Island after the lake are as deprived as that of Digya Island with no roads, electricity, schools, clinics, etc for which reason it is not possible to even travel through those places to try to locate Donkorkrom to the District Office of the EC.

That a simple check on Google Maps to try to travel from Digya National Park to Donkorkrom shows that there is no road to Donkorkrom from Digya National Park let alone from the Digya Island which is located somewhere in the middle of the Volta Lake. Please See Exhibit “DIGYA” attached herein.

That I have been told that if I have to go to Donkorkrom from Digya Island I would have to board the pontoon for three hours to go to the nearest village and then find a way to go through Ho in the Volta Region, travel to Koforidua in the Eastern Region and then go through Nkawkaw before travelling on the pontoon again to Afram Plains before travelling again to Donkorkrom. And when I am done with the registration I would have to go through the same route before getting back to Digya Island.That this is impossible for me to do.”

With such a serious predicament of the client Lawyer Isaac Minta Larbi was compelled to issue the necessary process to be filed urgently to be served on the EC.

Unfortunately, the High Court in Koforidua frustrated the filing of the application.

The Registrar delayed the process until it was late in the day before the application was filed by which time serving the EC was practically impossible.

“Even after the filing which took place very late in the day, the Registrar was directing bailiffs to go to Accra and serve the EC when service can be effected everywhere irrespective of the address which is stated on the face of the document.This attempt to frustrate the filing and service of processes in court when citizens of this country have the right to go to court is very unfortunate” Lawyer Minta Larbi stated .

He said the “Registrars of the courts do not have any power to interfere in the filing of processes in court but unfortunately this is happening at a time when critical action needs to be taken if not it may be too late.We can’t have a court whose officers can manipulate and frustrate litigants. That would be the very first step towards the denial of justice.

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The Counsel for the plaintiff also indicated that “Our other information reaching us is that even the application which was filed at the Supreme Court is also being frustrated.

Our checks reveal that efforts were made for the case to be heard today but the Registrar of the Supreme Court kept on giving different excuses including even saying that the Chief justice is not around to order him to do so.

As a result the application filed by the NDC, and the other political parties have been ignored by the court.

If the officers of the court can even frustrate you in filing processes at the court then the court is degrading itself to the level where even the smallest confidence people can have in it would be eroded”