High court dismisses contempt charges against EC Chair, six others

The High Court has cleared the contempt charges brought against the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensah and six other commissioners.

The commissioners were sued for not implementing an order from the High Court that ROPAA should be operationalized within 12 months.

The applicants in the case are five Ghanaians who live in the diaspora.

According to them the EC had “failed, refused or neglected to respect and comply” with the specific orders of the court in spite of numerous letters that they wrote to remind the EC of the impending deadline.

But the court in its ruling which was not read in full rejected the arguments and dismissed the application.

Background

The five Ghanaians sued the Electoral Commission claiming it had “gone to sleep” and refused to implement Act 699, 11 years after it was passed.

The “deliberate refusal” or inaction of the EC to implement the act, they argued, had robbed them of the chance to vote in three general elections (2008, 2012 and 2016) and other public elections.

They also contended that it was discriminatory for the EC to continue to register a category of Ghanaian citizens studying abroad or working in Ghana’s missions/embassies abroad to vote in public elections and referenda without including them.