In a writ filed by the defendant in the Superior court of Judicature argued that the arrangement cannot be deemed to be in accordance with due process of law and therefore unconstitutional.
The plaintiff has consequently sued both the Attorney General and the Electoral Commission at the Supreme Court. A summary of the case by the plaintiff said:
- That the Commission of Enquiry has the power to prescribe where the referendum should be held;
- That the Commission of Enquiry’s recommendation that the referendum be held in only the areas seeking the creation is unconstitutional; and
- That the referendum be held in the entire region (since the creation affects the entire region).
According to the group, the decision by the 2nd Defendant to preclude all other regions from the limited registration except the yet to be created regions is not consistent with Article 45(a).
But the deputy Regional Re-organization Minister, Martin Agyei Mensah Korsah is sure the suit will be thrown out by the court.
“It is not subject to individual interpretation, it is good that a group has gone to court, these opinions and interpretations are subject to be put before the Judge and it would be heard if we get to that stage. But I tell you, it’s a straight forward matter and this process has been led by eminent Jurist Justice Brobbey whom I believe would have taken this particular matter into consideration and so I don’t think there’s any ambiguity about it, it’s a straight forward matter,” he told Joy News.
The EC is to hold a referendum in parts of the country for the creation of six additional regions following a recommendation by the Justice Brobbey Commission to government.
The 19-member Commission after holding nationwide consultations urged government to create the administrative regions to be known as Oti, Ahafo, Brong East, Western North, North East and Savanna.
A road-map for organizing the referendum was approved by the EC at its recent Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting.