Electoral Commission appointees sue GIJ-General Assembly

A lawsuit has been filed against the General Assembly of the Ghana Institute of Journalism -Students' Representative Council (GIJ-SRC), over a matter concerning the appointment and vetting of electoral commissioners.

The suit follows what is described as the failure of the Vetting Committee of the General Assembly to work as stipulated in the constitution but rather suggest other solutions which are described as "novel and need more thinking and deliberations"

"...the vetting committee in their report could not come to a conclusion as to vet these appointees or not which was only their job, but they rather got time to propose a committee which is novel and needs more thinking and deliberations," the suit said

The Counsel for the Plaintiffs, Justice Kwame Asher explained that "the Vetting Committee has exceeded their power and is a deliberate attempt to conspire and deny them [Electoral Commission appointees] of occupying SRC position."

He further stated that "final year students will be disenfranchised in the upcoming elections."

Citing the vetting of a Deputy of Health Minister, Okoe Boye and Supreme Court Justices as examples, the plaintiff, therefore, entreated the Vetting Committee to have followed same.

The matter comes up as a result of the disruptions that have been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as school activities including SRC elections have had to be put on hold.

Reliefs

The plaintiff seeks for a letter of apology to both the plaintiff and the entire student body and a fine by the court for damages.

Also, the Vetting Committee members should be disallowed from holding any position in the SRC due to their non-compliance of the constitution.

Background

The SRC President of GIJ-SRC, Joseph Agbezuke named his nominees for the Electoral Commission,.

The appointees are Electoral Commission Chairman Agyensaim Lord Listowel and Deputy Electoral Commission Chairman Nana Kwame Ampofo.

The Vetting Committee is supposed to vet and propose recommendations including the approval or otherwise of the appointee(s).

However, the committee in a report advised the General Assembly to move on without the current commissioners but form another committee to handle elections in the coming semester.

It is out of this report submitted by the general assembly vetting and appointments committee that the petitioners headed to court to challenge the decision of the recommendations of the committee to move on without the current commissioners but form another committee to handle elections in the coming semester.

The argument of the committee has been that the semester will be ending virtually and that will not allow the commissioners to perform their mandate as stipulated in the constitution especially as their mandate ends right after this semester. This they believe will only amount to a "waste of resources"

Below is the suit