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New Voters’ Register: Supreme Court delivers judgement on June 23
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Supreme Court of Ghana has adjourned judgement for case between the Electoral Commission(EC) and the National Democratic Congress(NDC) over compilation of new voter register to Tuesday, June 23, 2020.
The NDC is challenging the EC’s decision to exclude an existing voters’ ID as a prerequisite for the registration exercise.
Making his submission, lawyer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Edudzi Tamekloe said, the Supreme Court had held earlier in the Abu Ramadan and Another vrs EC case that existing voters’ register is for all practical purposes the prima facie evidence of nationality.
That assertion he said had not been rebutted by defendants.
He further told the court that it does not lie in the mouth of the Attorney General, (A-G) to say that all elections held in the country are tainted with illegality.
The Deputy Attorney General, who represented the (A-G), Godfred Yeboah Dame said, the NDC’s case is unmeritorious.
The Commission led by Lawyer Justin Amenuvor in their legal arguments described the card as a fruit of a “poisoned tree.”
Following this the seven-member panel led by the Chief Justice, Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah adjourned the case to June 23 for its judgement.
The Supreme Court on June 4 gave the EC up until June 8 to justify its stance. The commission has complied raising six legal issues to attempt to get the court to agree with it.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged the government to place all 54,985 candidates affected by the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) placement exercise in schools and publish the final outcome.
The party says the government must ensure that the affected candidates secure actual school places rather than merely being allowed to access the self-placement portal.
In a statement signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the party expressed concern about the situation facing the candidates.
The NPP said the government had announced that 53,887 of the affected candidates could use the self-placement system after initially being told that they had not qualified for secondary school.
It, however, argued that access to the portal did not guarantee that candidates would secure their preferred schools or programmes.
“Ghanaian parents and candidates will judge the resolution of the challenge by one thing only: how many of the original 54,985 are sitting in a classroom, not how many were allowed to open a website,” the statement noted.
The party said the government’s own figures showed that the country had 859,828 declared vacancies for 623,072 BECE candidates.
It explained that the main challenge was the concentration of demand in a small number of highly subscribed schools.
The NPP noted that 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, while those schools had 76,417 declared vacancies.
It therefore called on the government to explore ways to improve schools with available spaces, including providing teachers, laboratories and better programmes.
The party urged the government to use the 85 private schools participating in the Free SHS programme to absorb candidates who remained without placements.
The NPP further called for clarification of the rule and pass mark used for this year’s placement exercise, saying parents were entitled to know the standard before their children sat the examination.
It urged the government to take urgent action to ensure that the affected candidates were not left behind in the transition to secondary education.
By: Jacob Aggrey
General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Kodua Frimpong, has filed his nomination to contest the position of General Secretary again as the party begins its rebuilding efforts ahead of the 2028 general elections.
He was accompanied by party stalwarts and supporters who were in high spirits, expressing confidence that he is the right person to hold the position.
Speaking after filing his nomination, Mr Kodua Frimpong assured the rank and file of the party that he would not disappoint them.
“I can assure you that the faith the rank and file of the party have had in me, I will never disappoint them,” he said.
He also pledged to run a clean campaign devoid of personal attacks.
“I can assure you that our internal campaign will be devoid of personal attacks,” he told his fellow contestants and the rank and file of the party as he seeks to retain his position.
His tenure has seen the party through the 2024 general elections, where the NPP lost power to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) after eight years in government.
The party is currently in a rebuilding phase, with internal elections scheduled to elect new national executives to lead its reorganization towards the 2028 polls.
The General Secretary position is considered one of the most influential in the party’s administrative structure, responsible for the day-to-day running of the party secretariat and implementation of party decisions.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
