Supreme Court Dismisses Suit Over Special Voting

The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, yesterday dismissed the case brought against Electoral Commission (EC) over the counting of the ballots in the special voting.

The seven-member panel of judges, presided over by Justice William Atuguba, said the case of the plaintiffs-Dr. Amoako Tuffuor, Benjamin Arthur and Adreba Abrefa Damoa, was in contravention of the provisions of the 1992 constitution.

He said the fear of the plaintiffs, who prayed the court for an order to count ballots papers in the special voting, was unfounded.

Judgement
Justice Atuguba stated that counting the votes would jeopardize the secrecy of the ballot, as well as that of the voters involved.

The court opined that none of the parties in the case was able to cite an instance in the world whereby special votes were counted.

He said the constitution did not also contemplate fractional declaration of results.

The court accordingly dismissed the suit.
Meanwhile, Justice Atuguba told Dr Amoako Tuffuor that had served his country well although the judgement did not go his favour.

He jokingly disclosed that he would have given Dr Amoako Tuffuor a national award if he had the power to do so.

Atuguba on the media
Justices Atuguba said the media, as the fourth estate of the realm, is very important in every democratic state and should take their work seriously.

Justice Atuguba noted that failure by the media to play their role was an indication that the public, who the media represent, would be “misled.”

Making reference to misreporting of court proceedings, he argued that “they have a special place in the constitution, for me I like them; I think they are very, very, important.”

Touching on the rationale behind the seizure of mobile phones of journalists in the court yesterday, he said, “I am sorry they can't bring their phones here, if they improve they will bring them here.”

Justice Jones Dotse, another member of the panel, chided the EC for failing to come to court at the last sitting.

He contended that the Commission was a constitutional body with so many directors, some of whom, could be appointed to represent them in court in such cases of national interest.

Justice Dotse was of the view that the EC ought to make its presence felt in court.

The court criticized the EC for persistently failing to appear before court over matters of national interest.

The court became incensed when it became apparent that there was nobody to represent the Commission at the last hearing.

However, Amadu Sulley, Deputy Chairman of the EC in-charge of Operation, said the Commission was sorry for its absence and that it was overtaken by events.

He assured the court that the incident would never be repeated.

Egbert Fabille Jnr, lawyer for the plaintiffs, who was prompted by Wilberforce Asare, the Dean of the Judicial Press Corps, apologized on behalf of the journalists over concerns raised by Justice Atuguba.

Dr. Tuffuor Speaks
Speaking to journalists after the ruling, Dr. Tuffuor disclosed that “you must count the number of people who come there to vote and let's have a national result of the numbers that vote on that day.”

He said “in any case I am not here to litigate because we have to do so, we have basic issues we must understand to protect the forthcoming elections.”

Dr. Tuffuor further stated that “I am pleading with everybody, please let's take it easy, the court has made a decision we must accept, we may not agree with it, we must respect it and be extremely vigilant.”

“There are a lot of disgruntled NDC people…There are individuals from several angles who talk about special voting. I am not going to give anybody out but we brought it to court, we were judged on its merits, and I think we must accept the verdict,” he stated.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
[email protected]