<<Print>>

#FixTheCountry campaigners have reportedly filed a petition for the removal of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) and other officers of the Commission.

The reason for the petition, according to them was as a result of none representative of the people of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi (SALL) in Parliament.

A convener of the group, Oliver Barker-Vormawor explained that the petition is in accordance with Article 146 of the 1992 constitution and is signed by 46 members of the #FixTheCountry movement.

“Our decision to seek the removal of the EC is based on our belief that the fact of the disenfranchisement as well as the indolence of the Electoral Commission (EC) in taking steps to remedy this constitutional breach in itself rises to the threshold of stated misbehaviour and incompetent that Article 146 requires for the removal of officers of the Electoral Commission”

“It’s our hope that if the President receives this that they treat this with dispatch as it has done previously and that he submits this to the Chief Justice who must then go on and perform the constitutional duty of determining whether or not the fact as we would lay them out amounts to a prima facie case for the impeachment of the officers so named in the petition,” he said when addressing media practitioners on the matter.

He was optimistic that there is sufficient grounds to push for a prima facie case against the EC to be removed.

Voters within Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi, were only allowed to exercise their franchise in the presidential election but could not vote in the parliamentary election.

This however led to an ex parte motion filed by residents of the Guan District who were not given the opportunity to vote in the parliamentary elections on December 7, 2020.

A Ho High Court presided over by Justice George Boadi on December 23, 2020, granted an injunction after SALL residents argued that their inability to vote in the 2020 parliamentary election amounted to a breach of their rights.

However, the State through tje Attorney General, Godfred Dame, filed a motion at the Supreme Court to overturn the injunction placed on John Peter Amewu the eventual winner of Hohoe seat by the Ho High Court.

The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision quashed the orders made by the Ho High Court placing an interim injunction on the gazetting and swearing-in of Member of Parliament for the Hohoe constituency, John Peter Amewu.