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Jean Mensa – Chairperson of EC

An Accra High Court has cleared the Chairperson
of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs. Jean Mensa, and six other officials of
the commission of contempt of court.

Some Ghanaians in the diaspora had cited the EC
officials for contempt insisting that the commission had deliberately failed to
adhere to the orders of another court to implement the Representation of People
Amendment Act (ROPAA).

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Dr. Kofi Boateng, Agyenim Boateng, Nellie
Kemevor, Obed Danquah and Christian Sillim wanted the court to punish the
officials for their failure to see to the implementation of the Act which gives
Ghanaians leaving abroad the right to vote in national elections and referenda.

An Accra High Court (Human Rights Division) on
December 17, 2017, ordered the EC to activate the process that would enable
Ghanaians living abroad to vote in the country’s elections.

The court said within 12 calendar months – beginning from January 1, 2018 – the EC should lay
before Parliament the modalities for the implementation of the ROPAA Act so
that Ghanaian citizens living abroad can take part in election 2020.

The court also ordered that should they fail to
implement the Act as directed, it should publish the reason it could not do the
implementation.

The 12-month period given by the court ended on
December 31, 2019, but the EC could not implement the Act and subsequently
filed a motion pleading for an extension of time to do so.

Contempt
Application

The plaintiff then headed to court through
their lawyer, Sampson Lardy Anyenini, alleging that “the EC failed, refused or
neglected to respect and comply” with the orders of the court.

“The first respondent (the EC) and its
commissioners have, with impunity, continued their contemptuous acts of not
complying with the said judgement and its specific orders directed at them
personally, even though the time for complying has elapsed,” they averred.

According to the five applicants, the only way
to ensure that the EC complied with the court orders was for Mrs. Mensa and the
other commissioners to be “committed to prison for contempt”.

Opposition

In her affidavit in opposition, the EC Boss
denied claims by the applicants arguing that she was not the Chairperson of the EC at the time the court
gave the orders in December 2017 and that since her appointment, she had taken
steps to implement the orders of the court.

“Having been
seized with the orders of the court after my appointment in July 2018, and
ensuring that steps are taken in complying with the orders of the court, I,
through my lawyers, filed for an extension of time within which the
operationalisation of Act 699 would take place.

“I deny that in
the performance of my official duties as the Chairperson of the Electoral
Commission of Ghana; I have acted wilfully with the view to bringing the
administration of justice into disrepute or disregard,” she averred.

The court, in its
ruling, dismissed the application but refused the EC’s request to award cost
against the applicants.

Meanwhile, an Accra High Court has granted a request by the EC to give it another 12 calendar months to implement the Act.

BY Gibril Abdul Razak

The post Court Clears EC Officials Of Contempt appeared first on DailyGuide Network.

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