{"id":116060,"date":"2026-02-19T14:15:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=116060"},"modified":"2026-02-19T14:15:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:15:30","slug":"justice-abdulai-backs-removal-of-ec-leadership-but-urges-reform-of-article-146","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=116060","title":{"rendered":"Justice Abdulai backs removal of EC leadership, but urges reform of Article 146"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Private legal practitioner Justice Abdulai has declared his support for the removal of the Electoral Commission (EC) Chairperson, Jean Mensa, and her deputies, describing such a move as necessary for Ghana\u2019s democratic progress.<\/p>\n

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM\u2019s Midday News on Thursday, 19 February, he acknowledged holding a personal bias against the EC Chair, stating that he has not been impressed with her performance, particularly in the last two general elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to be honest about my position on the EC Chair in particular \u2014 I am biased against her removal. Any petition legitimately intended for her removal, I\u2019ll be in support of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He argued that the removal of the EC leadership would be a \u201cgood omen\u201d for Ghana, stressing that the Commission\u2019s work in recent years has left much to be desired.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed her out because I\u2019m not impressed with her work, particularly since the last two elections,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

His comments follow the decision by Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie to dismiss petitions seeking the removal of the EC Chair, her deputies, and the Special Prosecutor, on the grounds that the complaints failed to meet the prima facie threshold required under Article 146 of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

However, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has insisted that the Electoral Commission\u2019s leadership must be removed.<\/p>\n

While agreeing that the Chief Justice\u2019s ruling must be respected, the lawyer raised concerns about the discretionary power vested in the Chief Justice in determining whether a prima facie case has been established.<\/p>\n

He warned that such discretion could turn the removal process into a political tool, depending on how public office holders \u201cappeal\u201d to the relevant authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt becomes a serious political tool for the removal of these public office holders, depending on whether the person appeals appropriately to the President or the Chief Justice,\u201d he cautioned.<\/p>\n

He renewed calls for reforms to Article 146, advocating legislative measures to regulate the removal of Article 71 office holders, including senior judicial and electoral officials.<\/p>\n

He also welcomed similar proposals by Minority MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, who has called for a Constitutional Instrument (CI) to guide the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had already made that proposal,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is in the right direction, and we have to have this done.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Private legal practitioner, Justice Abdulai, has declared his support for the removal of Electoral Commission (EC) Chairperson Jean Mensa and her deputies, describing the move as necessary for Ghana\u2019s democratic progress.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1966,16370,1883,117,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hp-news-6","category-justice-abdulai","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}