Justice Kwaku Gyan, a former Justice of the Court of Appeal, has criticized the Supreme Court for excluding the chairwoman of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, from testifying during the 2020 presidential election petition.
The petitioners’ attempt to have the EC chair subpoenaed into the witness box, led by former President John Dramani Mahama and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), was unsuccessful, as the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Chairperson and Peter Mac Manu could not be forced to testify in the Election Petition case.
The NDC and John Mahama had declared that the governing New Patriotic Party would not win the 2020 election. They were also dissatisfied with the various election results announced by the electoral administration authority and demanded accountability. But their attempts were in vain.
Speaking during a public lecture titled “Protecting Our Democracy: The Role of the Judiciary,” Justice Kwaku Gyan emphasised the importance of the judiciary in effective governance, which he believes is essential in any democracy.
He called the Apex Court’s verdict “shameful,” emphasising that it precluded the EC from being accountable to the people.
“Article 125 (1) emphasizes that ‘justice emanates from the people and shall be administered in the name of the Republic by the judiciary which shall be independent and subject only to the constitution.’ The import of these stipulations is to underscore the fact that the judiciary and hence judges of our courts are accountable to the people as their servants and not as their masters in the quest to achieve and advance the vision of democratic government and the objective and tangible fruit of democracy in our land.”
“Additionally and more importantly, the judiciary has the bonding duty to hold all other powers, entities, and agencies of the state accountable and ensure transparency in their actions or deeds and in this respect, I felt very agonized when the Supreme Court in the 2020 election petition decided to shield the Electoral Commissioner from giving evidence. The Supreme Court in that trial was a constitutional court not just any court…adversarial court and the Electoral Commission was the Returning Officer.”
