John Peter Amewu
A High Court in Ho has dismissed a petition challenging the constitutionality of the election of John Peter Amewu as the Member of Parliament for Hohoe in the Volta Region, in the 2020 election.
The court, presided over by Justice Owoahene Acheampong, yesterday indicated that it did not have jurisdiction to determine the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs as they sought to question C.I 128 which the Electoral Commission (EC) used in the conduct of the election.
Professor Margaret Kweku and four others had filed a petition against the Electoral Commission seeking an order declaring the election of Mr. Amewu as null and void, because the people of Santrofi, Akpafu, Likpe and Lolobi (SALL), made up of 13 communities were not allowed by the EC to vote in the December 2020 parliamentary elections.
The plaintiffs, who were represented by Tsatsu Tsikata, had argued that their inability to participate in the 2020 parliamentary election rendered Mr. Amewu’s election unconstitutional.
The Electoral Commission, represented by Justice Amenuvor, in its defence argued that the petition, as filed by the petitioners, was not an election petition at all.
This, the EC argued, was a result of the fact that the writ was not filed to challenge the way the voting went, was counted, results declared and gazetted, but a matter filed to challenge laws of the land, which challenge is only within the exclusive preserve of the Supreme Court.
The EC, therefore, urged the court to dismiss the case since it was not the appropriate forum to determine the issues raised by the petitioners.
The Ho High Court ‘2’, in its decision yesterday, held that it did not have the jurisdiction to determine the petition before it.
According to the court, the matters raised by the petitioners are constitutional matters which are solely within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, hence, the appropriate forum to determine them.
Earlier Attempt
A Ho High Court presided over by Justice George Buadi on December 23, 2020, granted an interim injunction aimed at restraining the EC from gazetting Amewu as MP for Hohoe in the Volta Region.
That decision was overturned by the Supreme Court, and the apex court later in March 2021 dismissed an application for review challenging its own decision that set aside the orders of a Ho High Court, which had placed an injunction on the gazetting of Mr. Amewu, as Member of Parliament-elect for the Hohoe Constituency in the Volta Region.
The review application filed by Tsatsu Tsikata, counsel for the interested parties, had contended that the Supreme Court committed errors of law which occasioned miscarriage of justice and ought to be reversed.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak