A last minute attempt by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to place an injunction on the swearing-in of NPP MP-elect for Techiman South has failed.
This was after a Wenchi High a court dismissed an application for injunction on the swearing in of Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah as MP for the area.
The NDC had rushed to the Wenchi Court with the hope of placing an injunction on the MP-elect for the Techiman South constituency, but the court refused the ex parte application.
Christopher Beyere Baasongti who contested for the seat on the ticket of the NDC and lost had filed the petition at the court seeking to prohibit Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah from being sworn in as MP.
The petitioner in his motion and argues that he is in possession of all the duplicate pink sheets from all the 267 polling stations in the Techiman South constituency and his tally of the votes therein show that he had won the election but the EC declared Mr. Adjei-Mensah Korsah as the winner.
He alleges that the returning officer could not collate the results of the constituency but attempted to declare Mr. Adjei-Mensah Korsah as the winner which led to a melee, resulting in the death of two persons and nine others sustaining injuries.
Mr. Baasongti also states that per the pink sheets presented to him by his poling agents from all the voting centres, he garnered a total of 50,306 votes while MP-elect obtained 50,013 votes.
He claims that although he polled the highest votes and the fact that there was no collation of results in the constituency, the returning officer of the area nevertheless went ahead to declare Mr Adjei-Mensah Korsah as the winner “at a place and date unknown to me”.
Mr. Baasongti argues that he vehemently protested to the returning officer’s declaration of Mr. Adjei-Mensah Korsah as winner of the parliamentary election in the Techiman South Constituency.
He claims that the actions of the EC are wrongful since he should rather have been declared the winner of the parliamentary election in the area and it is his name that should have been gazetted.
He was, therefore, seeking an injunction against the EC presenting Mr. Adjei-Mensah Korsah to be sworn in as MP-elect for Techiman South.
He was also seeking an order prohibiting the Clerk of Parliament giving any recognition to Mr. Adjei-Mensah Korsah as the MP for Techiman South and also permitting him to vote in the first sitting of Parliament.
Again, Mr. Baasongti wanted the court to prohibit Mr. Adjei-Mensah Korsah from presenting himself to Parliament as the duly elected MP for Techiman South Constituency.
He was represented by Justin Pwavr Teriwaja while Mr. Adjei-Mensah Korsah was represented Frank Davies and Gary Nimako Marfo.
The court presided over by Justice Frederick Arnold Kwasi Nawura dismissed the motion for injunction on the ground that the people of Techiman South need a representative at the swearing in.
“To injunct the 1st respondent (Mr. Adjei-Mensah Korsah) will be unfair. At the end of the trial, if it is established that the election was not done properly, I shall make my orders. I hereby refuse the application”, Justice Nawura held.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak