Your vote isn’t your power anymore – Manasseh laments abuse of power in Ghana

Celebrated freelance investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has lamented that it hurts that those with the power to stop hopelessness and cynicism in Ghana are rather those promoting them.

Mr Azure Awuni noted that the more one knows about Ghana, the more one becomes hopeless and cynical, mourning that voting only empowers others to act without consequences.

“The more you know about this country, the more cynical and hopeless you become. And it hurts when those who have the power to stop it are rather promoting it. Your vote isn’t your power anymore. It empowers others to act with impunity,” he wrote on social media.

Mr Azure Awuni, however, noted that his assertions are not about last week’s ruling per se but the continued abuse of power over the years in succeeding governments.

Supreme Court ruling

The Supreme Court last week dismissed two suits that were seeking the use of the existing voter identification card and birth certificates as the source documents for the upcoming voter registration exercise.

A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court dismissed the case by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) which wanted an order for the use of the existing voter ID card and one Mark Takyi-Benson, who wanted the use of a birth certificate as source documents for eligibility to register as a voter.

The Supreme Court further held that the Electoral Commission (EC) has the authority granted under Article 45 of the 1992 Constitution to compile an electoral roll.

The apex court granted only two reliefs sought by the NDC which had nothing to do with the inclusion of the use of an existing voter ID card as source documents and dismissed all the other reliefs.

It was a total of eight reliefs that were before the Supreme Court.