EC chair should be arrested immediately – A.B.A Fuseini

MP for Sagnarigu Constituency, A.B.A Fuseini, is calling for the immediate arrest of the Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jean Mensah for overseeing the two-day pilot voter registration exercise nationwide.

He argues that the CI on the use of the voters’ ID is currently before parliament. It is therefore unlawful for Jean Mensa to undertake a piloting exercise.

He added that as it stands, it is lawful for Ghanaians to use the current voters’ identification card for the registration process, but the Electoral Commission denied them the right to partake in the piloting exercise, with the excuse that the voter’s identification card (ID) was not accepted. This excuse he says was wrong and unacceptable hence the need for her to be arrested and prosecuted.

Speaking on Pan Africa TV’s morning show, the lawmaker said he wants to know where the commissioners derived their powers from to undertake the piloting exercise.

“Today I want to call for the arrest of Jean Mensa, she should be arrested and dealt with according to the law. The piloting exercise she went to do, under what law did she do it? Constitutional instrument 191 or 192 which is currently before parliament has not matured. It is only on Wednesday the committee on subsidiary legislation even voted, they are yet to bring the matter for us to debate and the house to take a dissolution on the matter. It has not been done. So it is not law, so where did she derive the power from on the bases of the card and passport.” He said

Meanwhile, the NDC is in court seeking among others “a declaration that, upon a true and proper interpretation of the provisions of the Constitution, particularly article 42, upon the registration of and issuance of a voter identification card to a person, that person has an accrued right to vote which cannot be divested in an arbitrary and capricious manner”.

And also “a true and proper interpretation of Article 45(a) of the 1992 Constitution, on whether 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”.

The Supreme Court in its ruling on June 4, 2020, ordered the EC to furnish the Court with the legal basis for their decision.

Source: www.ghanaweb.com