2016
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The plaintiffs sought multiple declarations from the Supreme Court regarding the inaccuracy and credibility of the current voters' register, which contained names of deceased persons and individuals who registered using now-invalid National Health Insurance Identification Cards. They also requested either a new register or an audit of the existing one. The defendants contended the issues didn't raise valid constitutional questions. The Court affirmed its jurisdiction, ruling that the voters' register, though inaccurate with ineligible names, is not unconstitutional overall. Orders were made for the Electoral Commission to clean the voters' register but not necessarily in the proposed manner of the plaintiffs.
GBADEGBE JSC:
On or about February 25, 2016 the plaintiffs issued a writ before us seeking the following reliefs:
1. “A declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of article 45(a) of the constitution of the Republic of Ghana, 1992 (hereinafter, the “constitution”), the mandate of the Electoral Commission of Ghana to compile the register of voters implies a duty to compile a reasonably accurate and credible register
2. A declaration that the current register of voters which contains the names of persons who have not established qualification to be registered is not reasonably accurate or credible and therefore inconsistent with article 45(a) of the constitution thereby making same unconstitutional, null and void of no effect.
3. A declaration that the current register of voters which contains the names of persons who are deceased is not reasonably accurate or credible and is therefore inconsistent with article 45(a) of the constitution thereby making same unconstitutional, null and void of no effect.
4. (a) An order setting aside the current register of voters and compelling the Electoral Commission to compile a fresh register of voters before the conduct of any new public election or referendum in Ghana;
Or in the alternative,
(b) An order compelling the Electoral Commission to audit the current register of voters through the validation of the registration of each person currently on the register
i. To delete the names of unqualified persons and deceased persons and
ii. To provide each validated registration with biometric evidence thereof and
iii. To strike out the names of those persons who fail to validate their voter validation within the stipulated period
Before the conduct of any new registration exercise or public election or referendum in Ghana.”
A statement of case that provided both the factual basis of the action and the applicable law on which the claim was planked accompanied the writ. Also filed by the plaintiffs, as part of the processes initiating the action herein is a verifying affidavit. We wish to state at once that the practice by which the plaintiffs exhibited documents to the statement of case is inappropriate; the better practice is that such documents be exhibited to an affidavit in the form of a verifying affidavit as stipulated in rule 46( 2) of the supreme Court Rules, CI 16. The issue of procedure turning on the rule has been the subject of previous decisions of this court and it is expected that in