Court throws out case against Gender Minister over Voter ID Card
The Agona Swedru Magistrate’s Court has thrown out a case filed to challenge the eligibility of Mrs Cynthia Mamle Morrison, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection over her voter’s Identification card.
She used a house at Wawase, a suburb of Agona Swedru to register in the recent EC’s mass voter registration exercise.
Mr Eric Yankey, Wawase Ward Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and polling agent for recent EC voter’s Registration exercise filed the case against the MP.
He claimed the MP breached the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 91, passed by Parliament this year which required that a person stayed in a community for at least four years or more before she or he could register to cast his or her ballot there.
According to the statement of claim made by the NDC Ward Chairman among others, the house of the MP was too bushy for habitation and alleged that it had been sold by the MP.
He also stated that the MP did not participate in communal labour in the area.
The four Defense Counsels of the MP led by Mr Alexander Kojo Kom Abban who is also the Deputy of Minister Communication and MP for Gomoa West argued that the case filed against MP had no merit and prayed the court to throw it.
The Defense counsel further argued that the statement made by the applicant that the house owned by the MP was too bushy had no justification.
Mr Abban told the court that the argument raised by the NDC Ward Chairman that the MP used a different house to register in 2016 registration was untenable and should not be accepted by the Court.
The Defense Counsel also put up a strong argument, saying the MP had about two houses at Agona Swedru and could choose to sleep in any of them for security reasons.
Mr Abban further stated that the claim by the applicant that the house had been sold by the MP was not supported by any documents.
He said Mrs Morrison did a lot of work in the community and prayed the Court to dismiss the claim that she dif not participate in communal labour.
The NDC Ward Chairman’s Counsels led by Mr Patrick Asamoah earlier argued among others that the house did not belong to the MP because she was not staying there.
The Court presided over by Mr Isaac Appiatu, said the applicant could not prove any strong case against Mrs Morrison who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Agona West, that the house used to register her name was not hers as claimed.
The Court ruled that the counsels for the applicant could not provide documents which showed that the house was sold by the MP and threw out the case.
It therefore urged the EC to allow Mrs Morrison, to go ahead and use her voters’ ID card to vote on December7, 2020.
Speaking to the Media after the Court ruling, Mrs Morrison said she bought the house more than five years ago and wondered why the NDC was spreading lies about her to the people.
Source: GNA