Some forty-six petitioners from the #FixTheCountry Movement, have withdrawn an impeachment petition against the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa and her Deputies.
Contained in a statement issued on Friday, July 14, 2023, the petitioners revealed that they had lost faith in the integrity of the process following a long wait for institutional action on the petition. It indicated that after 2 years of seeing various constitutional officers fail to live up to their constitutional responsibilities in this matter, their petition for impeachment hasn’t gone through as expected.
“In reaching this decision, we have considered the best interest of our democracy, and taken further account of our refusal to lend ourselves to any process that will ultimately be used to whitewash clear evidence of egregious misconduct. In addition, we see no reason why we should participate in the persistence of what has so clearly become a charade.”
FixTheCountry petitioners
FixTheCountry petitioner lament delay in acting on petition
Furthermore, the petitioners stated that the Chief Justice had deliberately delayed acting on the petition in order to allow the Electoral Commission to filibuster the process.
Additionally, the petitioners noted that they had decided to withdraw the petition in order to “exercise our democratic right to withdraw this petition, in order that the Constitution will no further be mocked by the indolence of actors who have been assigned the task of its protection”.
The petition was filed in January 2022, alleging that the Electoral Commission had misconducted itself.
The FixTheCountry Movement petitioned the President for the removal of Jean Mensa, and her two deputies over the inability of the residents of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe (SALL) to vote for a representative in Parliament. It contended that the conduct of the EC officials in the matter “meets the threshold of stated misbehaviour and, or incompetence as required under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution for the removal of these officials”.
A total of 46 individuals comprising “lawyers, academics, students, public and private sector employees, unemployed and homeless Ghanaians, and cuts across all political persuasions and ethnicity” form the crop of the petitioners.
Furthermore, the petitioners expressed that they have faith that the normal constitutional processes contemplated by the Constitution to “avenge infractions” against it and democracy will be upheld without fear nor favour. Also, it noted that their standing as “mere citizens” of this Republic does not disable them from obtaining justice, in the preserve of our Constitution”.
The actions of the impugned officials, according to the petitioners, if considered in context and in light of their preceding and subsequent conduct, meets the threshold of stated misbehavior and, or incompetence as required under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution for the removal of these officials.
Presenting their concerns, they further said that they have “chosen to place their trust in a 1992 Constitution they believe to still be alive”.
President Akufo-Addo following the petition, officially wrote to the Chief Justice, Kwesi Anim Yeboah, to look into a petition sent to his office by leaders of pressure group #FIXTHECOUNTRY over the conduct of EC Chair, Madam Jean Mensa.
It will be recalled that during the 2020 general election, residents of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe (SALL) could not vote in the Parliamentary elections due to an administrative demarcation by the Electoral Commission.
Subsequently, the decision by the EC inadvertently disenfranchised the indigenes from casting their ballots in the parliamentary polls.
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