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Voters' register brouhaha: NDC drags EC to court

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has dragged the Electoral Commission to court over its decision to compile a new voters' register ahead of the 2020 general elections.

Jean Mensa, EC boss

The NDC said the EC lacks the power to go ahead with its plans because it can only "compile a register of voters only once, and thereafter revise it periodically, as may be determined by law."

In the writ to invoke the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, the NDC among other things demanded for a "declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of Article 45(a) of the 1992 Constitution, 2nd Defendant [the EC] has the constitutional power to, and can, compile a register of voters only once, and thereafter revise it periodically, as may be determined by law. Accordingly, 2nd Defendant can only revise the existing register of voters, and lacks the power to prepare a fresh register of voters, for the conduct of the December 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections."

The Attorney General has also been cited as a defendant in the case.

According to the NDC a "declaration that the 2nd Defendant, in purporting to exercise its powers pursuant to article 51 of the 1992 Constitution to exclude the existing voter identification cards from the documents required as proof of identification to enable a person register as a voter without any justification is arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and contrary to article 296 of the 1992 Constitution."

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