December 7 vote - Supreme Court holds the key
December 7 vote - Supreme Court holds the key
Accra
Greater Accra 04 December 2000
The Supreme
Court will on Monday hear a suit filed by a voter challenging the decision of
the Electoral Commission (EC) that only photo ID cards would be used in next
Thursday's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Mr Philip
Kwaku Apaloo of Kaneshie in Accra said in his suit filed last Wednesday that
the EC's decision is inconsistent with Article 42 of the constitution.
Mr Apaloo
is seeking a relief that not until the case is determined, the elections should
not be conducted.
The suit
throws into doubt the holding of the elections on December 7 if the Supreme
Court is unable to complete the hearing and rule before that date.
There could
be a constitutional crisis as December 7 itself was chosen after legal
arguments giving requirements of the documents.
Already,
the Special Voting scheduled for Monday, December 4, for staff of security
institutions, the Electoral Commission and journalists among essential staff
that would be on duty on December 7, has been postponed at least for 24 hours.
The
Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, said that vote will now take
place. But it clearly will depend on the Supreme Court granting his application
to have that vote carried out.
Article 42
states: "Every citizen of 18 years of age or above and of sound mind has
the right to vote and is entitled to be registered as a voter for the purposes
of public elections and referenda."
The suit is
the culmination of wrangling over whether thumbprint voter ID cards could be
used in the election after the EC's national exercise to replace all such cards
with photo IDs.
The EC has
said repeatedly that the voters' register of some 10.7 million is bloated by
some 1.5 million, given figures provided by the Ghana Statistical Service after
the national census last March.
The EC's revised
voters' register shows that the names of only 133,373 people have been removed
from it while several thousands were added when the register was reopened for
those who have now attained voting age or who had not registered to do so.
The EC
feels very strongly that voters who have lost their ID cards or changed
residence registered again thus swelling the register.
The figures
show that the voters' roll has come down to 10,706,037 from 10,839,410 after
some names were removed from the list.
This, however,
is still unacceptable as it means that 58.14 per cent of the population of
18.41 million are 18 years and above.
Much as the
photo ID cards exercise has helped weed out ghost voters and those who have
died, some genuine holders of thumbprint cards have not had the opportunity to
have the new cards.
Such voters
or their opinion leaders cite technical and human problems such as faulty
cameras, shortage of materials and alleged reluctance or refusal of EC staff to
go to certain areas as causes.
The EC has
extended its mopping-up exercise until the close of Sunday for genuine voters
with the thumbprint cards to change them.
However,
the argument persists that poor rural people who are those who have the
thumbprint cards, cannot travel to the district centres.
Dr.
Afari-Gyan, in a statement last Monday in Accra, said only a voter's photo ID
card will be accepted during the presidential and parliamentary elections.
However, he
said, a prospective voter without a photo ID card will be required to go
through a procedure prescribed by the EC to establish his/her identification
before being allowed to vote. A holder of a thumb-printed card will, therefore,
be treated as someone without a voter's ID card.
The
procedure to follow for those without a voter's ID card is spelled out in
Chapter 3 of "Guide to Election Officials 2000", the EC's document on
voting procedures, as follows:
a. Check
the name of the person in the Name Reference List.
b. If the
name is not on the list, the person must be politely told to go away
from the
polling station.
c. If the
name is on the List and all the candidates/party agents affirm that
they know
the person, allow the person to go through the voting process straight
away.
Otherwise, ascertain the person's identity by proceeding as follows:
d. Pick out
the original registration form of the person using his/her Voter ID
Number on
the Name Reference List.
e. Ask the
person to give you and the agents the following information, which should be on
the registration form:
Father's
name
Mother's
name
Hometown
Age
f. If the
information given by the person is correct in all particulars and the
candidate/party agents are satisfied that the person's identity is not in
doubt, then allow him/her to go through the voting process.
g. Compile
a list of all persons who vote without ID cards
However,
the New Patriotic Party (NPP) says that people without photo ID cards should
not be allowed to vote.
Indeed, it
has issued out instructions to its agents not to allow people with thumbprint
ID cards to vote.
In the
event of voters with such cards being denied their votes, even if one pooling
agent objects, there is the fear of confusion engulfing the poling stations.
The
Inspector General of Police, Mr Peter Nanfuri, has said the police fear that
this is the most potentially explosive issue that could cause violence and
asked the EC to clarify it.
His
clarification has not cleared the air, hence the court case.
The
landmark case would settle the issue once and for all so that Ghanaians would
have a peaceful election.
GRi…/