{"id":228338,"date":"2016-07-06T06:03:50","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T06:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=228338"},"modified":"2016-07-06T06:03:50","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T06:03:50","slug":"court-ruling-a-victory-for-democracy-abu-ramadans-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=228338","title":{"rendered":"Court ruling a victory for democracy – Abu Ramadan’s lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the lawyers for Abu Ramadan, who challenged the credibility of the voters’ register, Frank Davies, has welcomed the Supreme Court\u2019s order to the Electoral Commission (EC), to delete the names of the 56,000 people who registered with NHIS cards.<\/p>\n

Speaking to media after the order, he described the ruling as \u201ca victory for democracy and the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”hWFR1HRN6btV571QcDhTNXm0E27QafX9″]The\u00a0directive followed a ruling by the apex court<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on May 5 2016. In that ruling, the Court\u00a0also told the EC\u00a0to allow such persons who would be affected by the deletion to be re-registered using the right processes.<\/p>\n

Ghanaians must ensure EC’s compliance with order<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr.\u00a0Davis also noted that, the onus was on all Ghanaians as stakeholders to ensure that the EC complies with the court order.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will all ensure compliance. We are all, as Ghanaians are going to ensure that there is compliance with what the court has finally ordered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also said, he expects political parties to ensure that the Electoral Commission (EC) deletes the names of persons who registered onto the electoral roll with the NHIS cards.<\/p>\n

According to lawyer Davies, \u201cthe Electoral Commission does not act in a vacuum. There are political parties who are interested in the outcome of the elections. Whatever they do will be guided by the dictate of those political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

The apex court on May 5 2016, asked the EC\u00a0to expunge from the current voters\u2019 register the names of all persons who registered and voted in the 2012 elections, with the NHIS card as a proof of identity.<\/p>\n

The ruling followed a suit filed by Abu Ramadan, and one, Evans Nimako, who in 2014 won a lawsuit that barred the use of NHIS cards for registration of potential voters.<\/p>\n

The two, among other reliefs, wanted the current register declared inappropriate for the November polls.<\/p>\n

But the EC after studying the ruling said it\u2019s understanding did not suggest the use of any new process to delete the names of those who registered with NHIS cards, since there are already laid down procedures for expunging ineligible names.<\/p>\n

The EC\u2019s explanation however angered Mr. Ramadan who felt the Commission was disrespecting the explicit orders of the court.<\/p>\n

His position was further strengthened when one of the judges who gave the May 5 ruling, stated categorically that the ruling was clear and unambiguous and that the EC must remove the names of persons who registered with the NHIS card.<\/p>\n

He subsequently got the Supreme Court to issue the six-day ultimatum to the Commission, which the Commission obliged and presented the\u00a0list of 56,000<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the lawyers for Abu Ramadan, who challenged the credibility of the voters’ register, Frank Davies, has welcomed the Supreme Court\u2019s order to the Electoral Commission (EC), to delete the names of the 56,000 people who registered with NHIS cards. Speaking to media after the order, he described the ruling as \u201ca victory for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2647,2648,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2647","category-election","category-slider-1","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=228338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=228338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}