NPP organiser withdraws suit against EC

The Brong-Ahafo Regional Youth Organizer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Kwame Baffoe, has withdrawn an interim injunction against the Electoral Commission (EC) from conducting limited voter registration.

A five member Supreme Court Justices presided over by the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood struck the application out as withdrawn after telling the lawyer of the plaintiff that the case will receive the same losing response as Abu Ramadan presented earlier.

Mr. Baffoe filed a suit against the Electoral Commission (EC) at the Supreme Court, seeking an order to compel the EC to compile a new and credible national voters’ register for this year’s general elections.

Mr. Baffoe’s action is in accordance with Article 2(1) (b) and 130(1) of the 1992 constitution. Article 2(1) (b) states, “any act or omission of any person is inconsistent with, or is in contravention of a provision of this Constitution, may bring an action in the Supreme Court for a declaration to that effect.”

It is the case of Mr. Kwame Baffoe that the current national voters’ register, compiled by the EC and intended to be used for the general elections was bloated, hence unfit for use in the general elections. In the suit filed on February 19, 2016, with suit No: JI/13/2016, Mr. Baffoe indicated that the current national voters’ register was replete with names of foreigners, minors, deceased persons and other persons who were constitutionally ineligible to vote in the 2016 general elections.

Again, Mr. Baffoe mentioned that the current national voters’ register contained names of persons who used National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) cards to register– a situation which made it possible for non-Ghanaians and other ineligible persons to get registered as voters in Ghana. The Plaintiff contended that the EC in 2015 formed a five-member committee, chaired by Justice VCRAC Crabbe to, inter alia, investigate the credibility and fitness of the current national voters’ register.

He indicated that, even though the VCRAC Crabbe committee found that the current register was bloated, the EC had made it clear at various fora and in publications that it would go ahead to use it for the elections. Mr. Baffoe said that the VCRAC Crabbe committee recommended, among other things that; the EC should create completely new and credible voters’ register for the general elections.

According to Kasapa Fm’s court correspondent, Daakyehene Ofosu Agyeman, the 5 member Justices accepted the plaintiff’s application for extension of time to prepare their statement of case and adjourned the case Sine die.