John Mahama
The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed what it described as a defective writ filed by Kenneth Kwabena Agyei Kuranchie, Editor-in-chief of the Daily Searchlight newspaper, challenging the eligibility of former President John Dramani Mahama to contest the 2024 Presidential Election.
The writ which was filed in June last year had sought the Apex Court to stop Mr. Mahama from contesting the election because his bid was contrary to Article 66 (1) of the 1992.
According to him, per the constitutional article, Mr. Mahama was not qualified to contest the election, arguing that a person seeking re-election must be a sitting President and not a former one.
Attached to the writ were former President John Agyekum Kufuor, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin and the Attorney General.
Mr. Kuranchie was seeking the Supreme Court for a declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Article 62 of the 1992 Constitution, a former President of Ghana is not qualified to seek election as President of Ghana.
He also wanted the court to order the Speaker of Parliament to invoke and operationalise Article 68 (2) of the 1992 Constitution.
Objections
But lawyers for Mr. Mahama as well as the Speaker of Parliament both filed separate applications urging the court to dismiss the writ for not complying with the rules of the highest court of the land.
Thaddeus Sory, counsel for the Speaker in moving his application said there was no valid writ invoking the original jurisdiction of the court per Section 45 of the Court’s rules.
He also argued that a reading of the processes shows that both the writ and the affidavit in support were filed together contrary to rules of the court.
Mr. Sory also argued that there was no statement of case for the plaintiff’s case upon which to pursue his case as it was filed woefully out of time.
Tony Lithur, counsel for Mr. Mahama on his part argued that there was no proper statement of case before the court and the court has discretion to deal with issues of non compliance with the rules of court.
“When you file a writ and elect to file a Statement of case subsequently, it must be filed at the registry separately and stumped. It cannot be smuggled into the writ,” Mr. Lithur added.
Mr. Kuranchie in his response said, “I think that the addition of the statement of case does not take away the fact that a writ was filed.”
Justice Yonny Kulendi, a member of the 7-member panel told Mr. Kuranchie that his process was not borne by the rules “and so you cannot invent your own rules”.
“Because of your interest in law, you have become a lawyer but do it properly. You must find a master and learn under your master’s feet and cut your teeth properly,” Justice Kulendi advised the plaintiff.
The panel presided over by the Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, dismissed the writ as being defective after failing to file statement of case in compliance with the rules of the court.
“The writ is struck out as being incapable of invoking the jurisdiction of this court,” the court added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak