The presidential candidate of the NDC, John Mahama says the party disagrees with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the compilation of a new voter register for the December polls.
At a presser after a seven-member panel gave the Electoral Commission the green light to compile a new electoral roll, the former president, Mahama said his party is dissatisfied with the ruling.
“Despite the well-reasoned reliefs we sought, the apex court of our land had given a leeway for the Electoral Commission to go ahead with the exclusion of the existing voter identification card from the list of identification requirement for the registration of the new register.
“We are deeply disappointed, and we sternly disagree with the court over this outcome which has confounded many legal experts and indeed has thrown the whole country into a state of confusion,” he added.
The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision Thursday, June 25, a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court dismissed the case by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) which wanted an order for the use of the existing voter ID card and one Mark Takyi-Benson, who wanted the use of a birth certificate as source documents for eligibility to register as a voter.
The Supreme Court further held that the Electoral Commission (EC) has the authority granted under Article 45 of the 1992 Constitution to compile an electoral roll.
The apex court granted only two reliefs sought by the NDC which had nothing to do with the inclusion of the use of an existing voter ID card as source documents and dismissed all the other reliefs.
John Mahama said they had hoped that the ruling would be different.
However, while they await the full reasons for the judgement the party’s legal team is examining the decision.
The former president nonetheless said “it is also worrying that the court deferred the reasons for its decision to the 15 July, a date by which time the EC would have been two weeks into the said registration exercise.”
