The quest by an 18-year-old voter, Precious Ayitah, to punish the Electoral Commission for deciding to conduct the limited voter’s registration only at its District Offices has suffered a setback after her injunction application for contempt against the EC Chairpersons was dismissed for improper service.
The resident of Otsebleku near Afienya, who filed a lawsuit on September 12, is urging the Accra High Court to commit the EC Boss, Mrs. Jean Mensa, and her two deputies, Dr Bossman Asare and Samuel Tettey, for contempt of court for going ahead with the Limited Registration Exercise in spite of her injunction application seeking to put the exercise on hold.
Precious Ayitah, who says she is seeking to register as a voter for the first time, filed a human rights application at the High Court with the case that the decision by the EC to conduct the registration only at the Commission’s district offices will make it very difficult for her to register.
According to Counsel for the applicant, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo, the move by the EC was a fetter on her right to register and vote as enshrined by Article 42 of the 1992 Constitution, and therefore the court should protect her human rights in accordance with Articles 33 and 140 of the Constitution.
As part of her case, the applicant filed an injunction application seeking an order from the court for the EC to halt the registration exercise until the final determination of her substantive case.
In her application for contempt, Ayitah is of the contention that the EC’s decision to proceed with the registration exercise will prejudice her injunction application and directly affect the administration of justice. It is the contention of the applicant that the move by the EC was contemptuous, and therefore the top officers of the commission should be punished accordingly.
She averred that the respondents deserve a custodial sentence and nothing less for bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.
However, it will be recalled that security personnel prevented court bailiffs from delivering legal documents to the EC commissioners.
Security officers stationed at the EC’s premises, located opposite the Kofi Annan ICT Centre near parliament, are alleged to have claimed that they had received specific instructions to deny access to anyone until the week of September 18.
With regard to the substantive case seeking the enforcement of her human rights, Ayitah says she resided far from the EC’s district office and therefore did not have the means to move from her house to the registration centre to partake in the exercise.
It is her case that the ideal thing was for the EC to expand the scope of the exercise by conducting one in her electoral area. Consequently, the applicant is seeking a declaration from the High Court to the effect that the decision by the EC to conduct the limited voter registration exercise only in its district offices was a violation of her fundamental human rights guaranteed under Articles 23, 33, 42, 45(e), 46, 140, and 296 of the 1992 Constitution.
