Justice Marful-Saul (sitter middle) with the participants
Some 35 superior courts registrars across the country have received one-day training on their roles in the adjudication of electoral disputes in the country.
The training organised by the Senior Staff Association of Judicial Service Ghana (SSAJUG) in partnership with the Judicial Training Institute (JTI) and Star Ghana Foundation was designed to furnish the participants with the processes involved in the commencement of Parliamentary election disputes should they arise.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the training, Director of JTI, Justice Samuel Marful-Sau noted that the objective of the training was to equip registrars to be able to function effectively in the course of election disputes if an aggrieved candidate files a petition in their court.
“And since you registrars, everything passes through your hands we thought that it is important that you are given some training so that you don’t treat elections petitions like any ordinary civil case because this is a very sensitive and something that is very dear to our democratic processes so they should be given a special treatment.”
He said “even though it is a civil case you don’t treat it like a land case, you don’t treat it like a labour case, but you give it the attention it deserves because everything concerning elections is time bound.”
Justice Marful-Sau indicated that candidates who are aggrieved by the results of the 2020 Parliamentary elections “may decide to come to court and when they come we shouldn’t fail them, we should make sure that our processes are effective and we can deliver justice within the shortest possible time.”
Interim President of SSAJUG, Marilyn E.M Suttah in an address indicated that Ghana’s brief electoral experience has shown that election related disputes forms an intrinsic part of the electoral process and the credibility of the process could be measured by the capacity of state institutions to effectively resolve these disputes which includes the Judiciary.
According to her the role of the Registrar towards an effective election dispute adjudication cannot be overemphasized. However, the Registrars, who serve as the first point of call for litigants have not been trained and sensitized on the provisions that guide their work.
It is in view of this that SSAJUG has taken this initiative to solicit funding to assist the Judicial Service in training selected Registrars of the Supreme, Appeal and High Courts to facilitate the efficient delivery of justice especially on electoral disputes.
Mrs. Suttah therefore, entreated the participants to take the training seriously as it was being administered as a trainers’ training.
Executive Director of Star Ghana Foundation, Ibrahim-Tank Amidu said the group was “proud to be a part of this programme which in our opinion is quite significant in the current state of affairs regarding the 2020 elections and this might turn out to be one of the biggest contribution that we can make towards the consolidation and deepening of the democratic governance in this country.
“We see ourselves as partners and we looking forward to further collaborations beyond this 2020 election and possible adjudication to look to other ways where Star Ghana can work with the Judiciary in deepening and consolidating democratic governance and improving citizens’ access to justice”, he added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak