Supreme Court dismisses NDC’s application for review of voters register

The Supreme Court of Ghana has dismissed an application filed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which sought a review of the court’s judgement on the compilation of a new voters register for the upcoming December polls.

The action was taken by the court after the lawyer for the NDC, Tsatsu Tsikata, failed to move the party’s application in court.

Mr. Tsikata explained that there was not enough time for him to read through the Electoral Commission’s (EC) response because he received the document while in court. Therefore, he has to stay mute on it until he’s gone through the documents thoroughly.

Though he requested for the adjournment of the case, his plea was rejected by the Court.

The Supreme Court presided over by Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, noted that the reason for the dismissal of the review was because it lacked merit.

With regards to the scrapping of birth certificates as a requirement to obtain the voters ID card, the NDC argued that “its relevance for public purposes such as obtaining a passport is very well-established. Indeed, it is not only in Ghana that this is the case. Throughout the world, the keeping of official records of birth and the use of the resulting birth certificate for public purposes is well established.”

“The Supreme Court’s decision that holders of existing voter ID cards cannot use same as a source of identification, is also a matter of great concern to us as a political party. It is our view, that holders of existing voter ID cards have acquired rights based on the fact that the Electoral Commission have gone through a process of identifying them, ascertaining their ages and nationality and has adjudged them to be eligible to vote,” the lawyer added.