Chief Justice can’t be president if election 2020 is postponed – Paul Adom Otchere

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Renowned media practitioner, Paul Adom Otchere has argued that in a case where the battle against coronavirus hampers the compilation of a brand new voters’ register and subsequently the December polls, the Chief Justice can not take over the reins of presidency.

Although the Ghanaian structure makes room for the Speaker of Parliament and the Chief Justice as potential substitutes in a case the place the president and his vice are absent, Mr Adom Otchere says the authorized framework doesn’t “contemplate the Chief Justice operating the show as President.”

The query as as to if the scheduled December normal elections will come off nonetheless lingers unanswered because the nation battles for a sustainable therapy for the lethal novel coronavirus.

Talking in an interview on CitiFM’s Eyewitness Information, he argued that;

“We will not get there with the issue about the Chief Justice. It is fundamental to explain that in order of hierarchy in terms of the most important people of the state, there is a President, Vice President, Speaker of Parliament and Chief Justice.”

“The law does not actually contemplate the Chief Justice running the show as President because the law provides for what the Vice President does under circumstances for him to perform the functions of the President. It also provides under what circumstances it brings the Speaker”.

Already, the Electoral Fee has referred to as off its scheduled April 18 new voters’ register compilation with no new date introduced.

In mild of this, authorized practitioners have begun assessing the viability of different constitutional provisions in preparations in the direction of a worst-case situation for the December polls.

Whereas others maintain that the Chief Justice can maintain the fort in a case where the election is postponed and parliament is dissolved thereafter, Mr Adom Otchere has cancelled such arguments with motive that;

“Under Articles 60, 11 and 13, you find that when the President and Vice President are both not available, the Speaker would. And it actually proceeds that when the Speaker finds himself in such a situation, he shall call elections in three months so that the Speaker’s tenure as President of Ghana within such circumstances is limited to 90 days…”

Adding that, “… I don’t think we will get to the position where there is no Speaker or Parliament of sort and therefore we have to come to the fourth most important person; the Chief Justice. I don’t think the Constitution contemplates that. The list that is given in terms of the four is to indicate in terms of the state. It’s really a protocol issue.”

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