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An Accra Circuit court has given clearance for organisers of the Let My Vote Count to go ahead with their planned demonstration on September 29, 2015.
Per the ruling the demonstrators can also picket at the premises of the Electoral Commission (EC).
[contextly_sidebar id=”co22HRdTw8yNq9PBOsFAT9F7vDYQTpyQ”]According the court, the exparte injunction secured by the Police had elapsed its 10 day lawful existence, hence the green light for organizers of the demonstration to picket around the EC.
Speaking to Citi News, legal practitioner and member of the NPP, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko explained: “The law said that an exparte injunction lapses after ten days, today is the tenth day. The demonstration is supposed to take place tomorrow therefore the order is void. The court also said that the order no longer exists. So what it means is that the demonstration can go ahead.”
He added that “…if the Police seek to frustrate it they will have to come to court but I think really in the interest of justice, let them come on notice. You can’t come to court a day before a demonstration to go behind the organisers and hope to get a court to restrain the organisers from exercising their fundamental human rights in terms of the right to free speech, the right to assemble and the right to demonstrate.”
He was hopeful tomorrow’s demonstration will be a peaceful one.
“This is a peaceful demonstration and it’s meant to enhance our democracy, it’s something that we are all talking about and let’s hope that the Police will give them the necessary protection. I’m confident that it will be peaceful and I think that the Electoral Commission has nothing to hide and allow this petition and picketing to go on tomorrow,” Gabby added.
A demonstration that sought to petition the Electoral Commission (EC), to replace the current voters’ register, ended abruptly, after Police fired tear gas and bartered some demonstrators with batons and horsewhips.
According to the Police, it only used required minimum force to disperse some of the violent demonstrators who had defied the route for the protest, a claim the organizers had rubbished.
The organisers have decided to organise another demonstration on Tuesday.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Fred Djabanor/citmofmonline.com/Ghana