[2010]DLSC6138 • March 23, 2010 • Supreme Court •
AHUMAH OCANSEY vs. THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION AND CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS & CIVIL LIBERTIES vs. THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL & ANOR.
Two consolidated cases concerning the constitutional right of prisoners, including remand and convicted prisoners, to vote in public elections and referenda under Article 42 of the 1992 Constitution. The Electoral Commission had excluded remand prisoners from voter registration citing section 75 of the Representation of the People Law, 1992 (PNDCL 284), which disqualifies prisons as places of residence for voter registration purposes. The plaintiffs challenged this exclusion as unconstitutional.
read moreWOOD (MRS), CJ These two consolidated cases raise important constitutional questions pertaining to the right of prisoners to vote in public elections and referenda, pursuant to article 42 of the 1992 Constitution, as do other citizens of the Republic, save those below the age of eighteen years, and persons of unsound mind. SUIT NUMBERED J/1 5/ 2008-(THE CHURCIL CASE) In the suit numbered J1/5/2008, instituted by The Centre for Human Rights and Civil Liberties (CHURCIL), pursuant to article 2 (1) of the Constitution, this court is being invited to determine the question in relation to persons being held in prisons and who are usually referred to as remand prisoners. These are persons who have been arraigned before court on criminal charges, are awaiting trial, but are being kept in prison custody, i. e. legal custody, on court orders. Incidentally, not all remand prisoners are detained in prisons Contrary to the law; some spend their period of detention in police cells. CHURCIL i...