Former Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC) Abu Ramadan has served notice he will head to the Supreme Court next week to cite all seven commissioners of the Electoral Commission (EC) for contempt.
“I am citing them for contempt,” he emphasized on TV3’s News @10 on Thursday, May 19, following the Commission’s interpretation of a May 5 Supreme Court ruling over the voters’ register.
The Court had asked the Commission in its judgement to delete, inter alia, names of persons who registered with National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards and subsequently give them the opportunity to re-register.
But in a statement issued on Thursday after an Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) meeting, the Commission justified the registration by NHIS cards in 2012, saying it was “lawful at the time of registration”.
“The Judgment of the Supreme Court affirms the Commission’s consistent position on the status of the current voters’ register and the mechanisms for cleaning it, to make it acceptable to all stakeholders.”
‘Laughable’
But Mr Ramadan, who is one of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, said the EC’s stance is “laughable”.
“Where we are as a country, it is unfortunate we have a Commissioner who is a lawyer, has the opportunity to have a deputy who is also a lawyer and they claim they don’t seem to understand the ruling of the court?”
The leading member of the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) told TV3’s Stephen Anti that he sat out his case, which was adjudicated within 10 days by the Court.
He said Justice Nasiru Sulemana Gbadegbe in reading the judgement was clear in the ruling to the extent of rejecting the Commission’s laid-down process of cleaning the register.
“If the Supreme Court had agreed with the Commission that the processes which it intends to cleaning the register is credible, the Court would have said based on the programme line-up for cleaning of the register or correcting the register the Court has thrown out our case, the EC will expedite action on its programme for cleaning the register.”
Chinese or Hebrew?
He indicated that the ruling was clear in the Queen’s language, wondering the interpretation rendered by the Commission.
“Probably, the ruling was written in Chinese or Hebrew so we are now converting to English for people to understand exactly what the Court was talking about.
“The Court was clear in its ruling.”
He said his suit will force the Commission to do the “right thing” by deleting names of minors, dead persons and NHIS-registrants.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana
Twitter: @kwame_amoh