EC boss to be sued for contempt….likely to face 10 years jail term

Nana Asante Bediatuo, counsel for Abu Ramadan, a former National Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC), who sued the Electoral Commission (EC) over the credibility of the current voters register has indicated that he will be filing a contempt charges against the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) and other members of the commission for disobeying the court.

This follows the EC’s official response on the Supreme Court ruling that described the current voters register as “reasonably inaccurate”.

The Supreme Court on Thursday, May 5, 2016 ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to expunge over 600,000 names of dead persons from the current voters register.

The court also ordered the EC to delete the names of over 4million people who registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card and give them the opportunity to register again using appropriate identification.

But EC in a response yesterday explained that the recent Supreme Court ruling on the voters’ register did not instruct them to delete the names of those who registered ahead of the 2012 elections with the National Health Insurance card as a proof of identity.

Speaking in an interview with Oman FM, Nana Asante Bediatuo, expressed surprise that the EC could go to the extent of misinterpreting the directives of the Supreme Court, when most of the members of the commission are lawyers.

“I’m not happy at all by position of EC. In fact my client is very angry. And so I will be filing a contempt charges against the EC in the next few days.”

According to him, the position taken by the EC constitutes a high crime and quoted article 2 of the 1992 constitution to buttress his point.

Article 2 clause (3) of the 1992 constitution states that “Any person or group of persons to whom an order or direction is addressed under clause (2) of this article by the Supreme Court, shall duly obey and carry out the terms of the order or direction.”

Clause (4) of the same article states that “Failure to obey or carry out the terms of an order or direction made or given under clause (2) of this article constitutes a high crime under this Constitution and shall, in the case of the President or the Vice President, constitute a ground for removal from office under this Constitution.”

According to clause (5) of the same article, “A person convicted of a high crime under clause (4) of this article shall-(a) be liable to imprisonment not exceeding ten years without the option of a fine; and (b) not be eligible for election, or for appointment, to any public office for ten years beginning with the date of the expiration of the term of imprisonment.”

Story by: Michael Creg Afful

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