The National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has descended heavily on the Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkornoo, for a new regulation in filing injunction applications at the Supreme Court.
The NDC national officer described as reprehensible the new regulation, which is said to clothe only the Chief Justice with the powers to set dates for injunction applications.
“The Chief Justice must be called out,” Sammy Gyamfi rallied on The Keypoints on TV3/3FM on Saturday, September 9.
“It is totally reprehensible for us to have a situation in this country where you file an injunction application in the Supreme Court and you are told that because the Chief Justice has travelled, you cannot be given a date for hearing.
“The Chief Justice has now made new rules that she alone can now give dates for the hearing of injunction applications. In what civilised country can this happen?” Sammy Gyamfi asked.
This follows the non-designation of a hearing date for the injunction application filed by five political parties including the NDC against the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) on the upcoming limited voter registration exercise.
The parties are praying the apex court to enjoin the EC to extend the upcoming exercise to electoral areas instead of district offices.
Among the reliefs being sought by the plaintiffs is a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of articles 45(a), 45(e) and 42 of the Constitution, the decision by the EC to undertake the 2023 limited/continuous voter registration at the district offices of the EC instead of undertaking same on the basis of electoral areas “will result in voter suppression particularly in rural constituencies of the country, and is thus unconstitutional as it violates the rights of first-time voters to register and vote”.
No date for hearing was given by the Court.
Meanwhile, two suits seeking similar injunctions against the exercise, which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, September 12, have been filed at the High Court.
The first was filed by lawyers on behalf of Precious Ayittah and the second by Mercy Agbenorto.