Friday, February 27, 2015

Ghana: Supreme court cancels March 3 district assembly elections

The Supreme Court has directed the Electoral Commission [EC] to call off the much publicized District Assembly elections which was scheduled for March 3, 2015. 

The EC was dragged to court by an aspiring Assemblyman, Benjamin Eyi Mensah, represented lawyer Alex Afenyo Markin.

Mr. Eyi Mensah a fisherman, filed the case at the Supreme Court to annul the organization of the elections.

According to him, he was denied an opportunity to file his nomination despite meeting all conditions to be registered as a candidate because the EC closed nomination before the maturation of Constitutional Instrument (CI) 85.

Meanwhile, the William Atuguba led panel of judges in their ruling on Friday declared the election as “unconstitutional.”

According to the Supreme Court, the law on which the EC wanted to hold the election, CI 85 is not in force.

The EC’s lawyers led by EC James Quarshie Idan argued that the CI 85 which the plaintiffs were basing their case was not meant to empower the EC to conduct election but rather to give backing to the demarcation of electoral area on his clients relied on the section 11 of PNDC which deals with the organization of public elections in the country.

He further told the court that his client relied in section 11 of PNDC LAW 284, which according to him gave them the powers to organize and conduct elections in the country.
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 By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh /citifmonline.com/Ghana


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