Case of review 230 Constituencies - Supreme Court dismisses application

February 24, 2012 (Page 3 Lead)

THE Supreme Court has, by a unanimous decision, dismissed an application which prayed it to order the Electoral Commission (EC) to review the 230 constituencies in the country.
Two residents of Nungua in Accra, Messrs Richard Odum Bortier and Daniel Quaye, had filed an application praying the court to direct the EC to review the 230 constituencies as they stood now by altering them, following the publication of the enumeration figures of the 2010 Population and Housing Census, in accordance with the egalitarian principle of fair representation solidly embodied in the 1992 Constitution.
Also joined in the suit was the Attorney-General.
According to the court, the Supreme Court was not the proper forum to address that matter.
The court held that the proper forum for the plaintiffs was either the Regional Tribunal or the Court of Appeal.
It, accordingly, advised the plaintiffs, who were represented by Mr Ayikoi Otoo, to seek their reliefs at the courts designated by the Chief Justice.
No costs were awarded.
Later in an interview with journalists, Mr Otoo, a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, said he had sent the matter to the Supreme Court because he had filed the application in July 2011, four clear months before the Chief Justice constituted the Regional Tribunal.
He said his clients would move to the Regional Tribunal for their reliefs to be looked into.
In the substantive application, the plaintiffs sought, among other things, a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of Article 47 clauses 3, 4, 5 and 7 of the 1992 Constitution, the boundaries as demarcated by the EC of Ghana shall be made so as to ensure that it was in accordance with the egalitarian principle of fair representation solidly embodied in the Constitution.
They also prayed the court to direct the EC to review the boundaries of all constituencies as they existed now by altering them in order to conform with Article 47 (3) and (4) of the Constitution, with emphasis on the population distribution in accordance with the egalitarian principle of fair representation in the Constitution.