A Cape Coast High Court on Tuesday adjourned the case involving the withdrawal of the voter identification card issued by the Electoral Commission (EC) to Kwamena Mintah Nyarkoh, National Democratic Congress parliamentary candidate for the Cape Coast North to Wednesday, August 19.
The adjournment was to allow all parties serve the Court with the necessary documents to allow legal proceedings continue without delay due to the urgency of the case.
The counsel for the defendant, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, initially prayed the court presided over by Patience Mills Tetteh to allow the proceedings to go on since the EC had failed to file its responses.
Mr Tamakloe had alleged that Richard Asenso, the EC’s district officer for Cape Coast North failed woefully to inform the head office about the appeal by the District appeal’s committee, hence slowing the adjudication process.
He further argued that the EC’s own document he read to the court did not include his Client’s name among the list of people who were challenged on the said day.
However, Emmanuel Tetteh, counsel for the EC downplayed the arguments by the counsel for the defendant and prayed the Court to adjourn the case to allow them file all the necessary arrangements for proceedings to continue.
On Thursday, July 16, during the EC’s voter’s registration exercise, Mr Nyarko went to register at Nkanfoa polling station for the new Voter ID card but was denied access by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) observer.
The observer picked a challenge form and presented his case, on the grounds that the house number produced by the candidate did belong to him and that he was not a resident of Cape Coast North.
In accordance with the law, Mr Asenso, set aside a committee to investigate the issues which consequently invited the two parties to present their evidence.
The committee later found out that he was indeed not resident of the house address in Cape Coast North he provided.
This compelled the challenged candidate to file an appeal at the High Court.
Until then, his documents to pave way for him to contest the 2020 Parliamentary election would be a mirage.
GNA