The Chair of the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC), Jean Adukwei Mensa, has stated that her office did not receive any notice of injunction prior to the commencement of the 2023 limited voter registration exercise.
Speaking at a meet-the-press series on Monday, September 18, Mrs. Mensa revealed that the Commission became aware of the notice of injunction on Wednesday, September 13, a day after the registration exercise had begun.
Addressing the timing of the legal action, Mrs. Mensa expressed her concerns, stating, “We’ve known for a long time that we had registration, so why wait till a day before the exercise to serve on a Friday when there is a lot of field activity going on?”
The limited voter registration exercise had faced resistance from some civil society groups and political parties, particularly the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who advocated for the exercise to be conducted at the electoral area level rather than the district level.
Two separate legal suits were filed against the EC regarding the exercise, with the plaintiffs requesting that the exercise be conducted in electoral areas. One of these suits included a High Court injunction filed by a first-time voter, Precious Ayitah, who resides in Otsebleku, near Afienya in the Greater Accra Region.
Mrs. Mensa explained that due to procedural steps and document handling within the Commission, it took time for the injunction notice to reach the attention of the Commissioners. She clarified, “As a Commission, when documentation is brought in, it goes through steps, a recording process, and so sometimes it does not end up on the desk of Commissioners for some two, three days. So, we would like to state that it was after the start of the registration that we became privy to the injunction that had been served on us.”
Despite these legal challenges, Mrs. Mensa reported that the limited voter registration exercise has been proceeding satisfactorily and expressed her contentment with the progress of the exercise thus far.