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Ghana’s opposition party has dragged the country’s Electoral Commission (EC) to court over the latter’s decision to organise voter registration exercise in Senior High Schools (SHSs).
The NDC had earlier questioned the Electoral Commission’s decision to register SHS students in schools without registration centres, describing the move as illegal.
The latest legal battle means the EC will have to suspend the exercise until the court brings finality to the case.
“A declaration that it is illegal and wrongful for the Defendant to conduct registration at any place including campuses of a Senior High School which was not contained in the Gazette and notification in accordance with C.I 91.”
“A declaration that any such registration of voters including students that take place at any ungazetted and unpublished registration centre including Senior High School campuses is null and void and of no legal effect,” the NDC’s relief said in part.
Deputy General Secretary of the party, Peter Boamah Otokunor, had said in an interview that these newly created centres have not been gazetted to allow for their use in the ongoing voter registration exercise.
“It is bizarre to have an Electoral Commission that is even scattered in thought and planning. No political party has a list of schools that is going to be used for the exercise. As you are already aware, some of the schools are registration centres and the exercise is going on there. Now they are adding all other secondary schools that are not polling stations,” said Mr Otokunor in an interview with CNR.
He further added: “The law states clearly that the Electoral Commission has the power to create polling stations but when they do so, they must go through the process of gazetting and publishing them to political parties, 21 days before the time”.
But an official statement by the electoral management body issued on Thursday, July 9, 2020, indicated that the two-day exercise which ends on Saturday, July 11, 2020, is scheduled to be rolled out in senior high schools without registration centres.
“The Electoral Commission wishes to inform the general public that, it will embark on a two-day registration exercise for all eligible Senior High School students across the country. This registration will take place in all Senior High Schools that do not have polling stations (registration centres) within the schools,” the EC said.
Source: Daily Mail GH
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