EC can be dragged to court - Obiri Boahen

Page 28: Daily Graphic, January 7, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Minister of State at the Interior Ministry, Nana Obiri Boahen says that the notion that the Electoral Commission (EC) cannot be dragged to court as wrong.
He said if Ghanaians and the chairman of the EC, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan create the impression that the EC was an autonomous body and a creature of a statute, and therefore, not subjected to legal process was wrong.
Reacting to Dr Afari-Gyan’s statement that the evidence provided by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) bothered on criminality and not sufficient to invalidate the outcome of the Presidential run-off, Nana Boahen said by the rule of natural justice, the EC did not have the right to demand evidence from both the NPP and the NDC.
According to him, by demanding the evidence, the EC should have allowed the complainant to be cross-examined by the accused to enable the EC decide, saying that the essence of cross-examination was to enable the arbiter admit the evidence or not and pass judgement.
He made it clear that from time immemorial, it had been the judiciary that interpreted the Constitution and, therefore, “for Dr Afari-Gyan to think that he and the EC were not amenable to the Constitution is false”.
Nana Boahen said it was not possible for Dr Afari-Gyan to be a judge in a case where he failed to allow cross-examination of witnesses and, therefore, the dismissal of the complaint by the NPP was “untenable, unreasonable, unacceptable and uncalled for”.
In that case, he said, the best place to resolve such a dispute or misunderstanding as the Constitution provided was the Courts.
He cited the EC’s own case, the Republic vs Mettle Nunoo and others in which the EC sought to stop Mettle Nunoo and the other interested parties from demanding recounting/recollation of presidential results in the 2004 general elections at the High Court and wanted the matter to be determined by the Supreme Court.
He said it was, therefore, wrong for those who held the view that the NPP should not have gone to court to seek redress of its concerns.
Nana Boahen explained that the results of an election could not be genuine where agents of a political party were chased away and were unable to sign results.
“It is a well-known fact that fraud vitiates everything and, therefore, if a political party resorts to fraudulent means to get what they desire, it is wrong. Despite the perpetuation of the fraud, results were made to stand. It is not fair as the result is tainted with irregularity,” he said.
He said the EC’s acknowledgment of the criminalities and endorsing the results was bad for Ghana’s democracy.
“I think this is the time for Dr Afari-Gyan to quit and bow his head in shame,” he stated.
He said the 1992 Constitution of Ghana was the supreme law of the land which had states in Article 1 (1) and 1 (2) that sovereignity resides in the people of Ghana and that justice was administered by the judiciary.
Nana Boahen said under the constitution, neither the President nor Parliament nor organisation/agency of the President or Parliament shall have or be given final judicial power.
“The judiciary shall have the jurisdiction in all matters - civil and criminal - including matters relating to the 1992 Constitution and such others that may be conferred on it by Parliament,” he said.
Nana Boahen said Dr Afari-Gyan could, therefore, not create the impression that nobody could challenge the acts of commission or omission of the EC since it was created by the Constitution.
“From independence up to now, the greatest asset of this nation is the judiciary. The Executive might transgressed and the Legislature might become unruly. It has always being the judiciary that has stood the test of time by standing firm on the side of truth and justice,” he said.
“Apart from one knock here and there, overwhelmingly, the judiciary is the least offensive of the three arms of government and on that has brought stability to the country,” he added.
Nana Boahen said if the NPP or any other agency or party felt aggrieved, “you do not expect them to take bows and arrows, guns to fight to seek redress. The proper forum is the court”.
Nana Boahen said frowning on the NPP’s going to court was dangerous because “if we want our democracy to thrive, we should not create the impression that a party cannot go to court to seek redress”.
He said the end result of such tendencies would be chaos and war.
As to whether the NPP would go back to court, Nana Boahen said it was the preserve of the leadership of the NPP to decide.