Ruling party wins court battle on voter ID

Ghana’s Supreme Court has ruled that thumb print voter identity cards will be valid in Thursday’s election, handing a “victory” of sorts to the ruling party, according to news reports. The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) had said that the thumb print identity cards would enable the ruling party to rig the poll, tightly fought now that the charismatic leader of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Jerry Rawlings, ends his second and final term as elected president. The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) had said that as only 80 percent of Ghanaians had the new photo identity cards, rejection of the thumb print cards would disenfranchise too many voters. The BBC reported that several hundred stone-throwing NPP supporters demonstrated outside the Supreme Court on Monday but were dispersed by police using tear gas.