Judiciary joins campaign for violence-free election
Gilbert Boyefio, Cynthia Boakye
05/09/2008
The judiciary of Ghana has joined the campaign by both government and civil society groups to ensure peaceful, violence- free and credible elections on December 7.
As a result of this, the Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, has designated a number of automated courts across the country, to deal exclusively with electoral disputes which might be filed in the various law courts in the country.
Her Ladyship, in order to ensure the speedy resolution of electoral disputes, has ordered that cases should be heard on a daily basis. The working hours of these courts would be extended two to three hours beyond the normal court sitting hours, while judges are expected to sit on Saturdays as well.
The Chief Justice made this disclosure when she spoke on the theme, "The courts and election 2008: towards peace and stability”, organized by the Institute for Democratic Governance, as part of their peace and anti-violence forums for election 2008.
However, according to the Chief Justice, the courts were not going to be permanent. She pointed out that if the judiciary created permanent election courts as divisions of the high court, judges assigned to those divisions would go idle for most part of their lifetime. “Creating special permanent courts is a luxury we can ill afford; it does not in my view reflect a wise use of our limited resource”, she underscored.
Justice Georgina Wood further disclosed that to enhance transparency and credibility, judges who would man the designated courts would be those who had not shown open allegiance to any political party.
She said as is the normal practice in ordinary cases, parties who have information on anything to the contrary, as for example that the judge is a card bearer of a political party, is entitled to bring the facts out, supported by credible evidence, for the appropriate actions to be taken against him or her.
She noted that since it was impossible to determine at this stage the number of disputes that were likely to end up in these courts, there would be one supervising high court judge in addition to another high court judge on standby in all the regional capitals to deal with the electoral disputes, whiles in Accra three courts would be designated for the purpose.
She said training programmes designed to build the capacity of the designated judges would be held well ahead of the national elections. She added that she had tasked a small group of judges to prepare a crisp, easy-to-read and understand handbook on election disputes adjudication, a guide book to assist judges, lawyers and other stakeholders, to facilitate their effective participation in the process.
Her Ladyship Justice Georgina Wood noted that election-related disputes must be handled as pure criminal cases and expeditiously too. She strongly condemned the practice where lawyers argue their cases in the media instead of the law courts.
The IDEG forum was well attended by representatives of all the political parties in the country, academia, judiciary and civil society.
IDEG is a civil society research and advocacy organization that seeks to contribute to the “establishment of a just and free society” in Ghana through policy research and analysis, dialogue, advocacy, and capacity building activities.
05/09/2008
The judiciary of Ghana has joined the campaign by both government and civil society groups to ensure peaceful, violence- free and credible elections on December 7.
As a result of this, the Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, has designated a number of automated courts across the country, to deal exclusively with electoral disputes which might be filed in the various law courts in the country.
Her Ladyship, in order to ensure the speedy resolution of electoral disputes, has ordered that cases should be heard on a daily basis. The working hours of these courts would be extended two to three hours beyond the normal court sitting hours, while judges are expected to sit on Saturdays as well.
The Chief Justice made this disclosure when she spoke on the theme, "The courts and election 2008: towards peace and stability”, organized by the Institute for Democratic Governance, as part of their peace and anti-violence forums for election 2008.
However, according to the Chief Justice, the courts were not going to be permanent. She pointed out that if the judiciary created permanent election courts as divisions of the high court, judges assigned to those divisions would go idle for most part of their lifetime. “Creating special permanent courts is a luxury we can ill afford; it does not in my view reflect a wise use of our limited resource”, she underscored.
Justice Georgina Wood further disclosed that to enhance transparency and credibility, judges who would man the designated courts would be those who had not shown open allegiance to any political party.
She said as is the normal practice in ordinary cases, parties who have information on anything to the contrary, as for example that the judge is a card bearer of a political party, is entitled to bring the facts out, supported by credible evidence, for the appropriate actions to be taken against him or her.
She noted that since it was impossible to determine at this stage the number of disputes that were likely to end up in these courts, there would be one supervising high court judge in addition to another high court judge on standby in all the regional capitals to deal with the electoral disputes, whiles in Accra three courts would be designated for the purpose.
She said training programmes designed to build the capacity of the designated judges would be held well ahead of the national elections. She added that she had tasked a small group of judges to prepare a crisp, easy-to-read and understand handbook on election disputes adjudication, a guide book to assist judges, lawyers and other stakeholders, to facilitate their effective participation in the process.
Her Ladyship Justice Georgina Wood noted that election-related disputes must be handled as pure criminal cases and expeditiously too. She strongly condemned the practice where lawyers argue their cases in the media instead of the law courts.
The IDEG forum was well attended by representatives of all the political parties in the country, academia, judiciary and civil society.
IDEG is a civil society research and advocacy organization that seeks to contribute to the “establishment of a just and free society” in Ghana through policy research and analysis, dialogue, advocacy, and capacity building activities.
Comments
Post a Comment