John Peter Amewu
A Ho High Court presided over by Justice George Buadi has granted an interim injunction which restrains the Electoral Commission from gazetting John Peter Amewu as MP for Hohoe in the Volta Region.
The injunction was granted today, December 23, 2020 after an ex parte application was presented before the court by the lawyer of some residents who claimed to be from the Hohoe Constituency.
Lawyer of the applicants, Tsatsu Tsikata, who argued for the ex parte motion, said the injunction was necessary because his clients who hailed from towns within the Hohoe constituency were prevented from voting in the parliamentary elections that saw John Peter Amewu elected as Member of Parliament for Hohoe.
They have brought the action for enforcement of their fundamental human rights, specifically their right to vote, they noted.
The injunction comes a few days after some Chiefs of Lolobi and Akpafu wrote to the Electoral Commission asking why they were made to abstain from the parliamentary elections on December 7, 2020.
The EC issued a release on the eve of the elections announcing that, as a result of creating the Guan district and pending the creation of the Guan constituency, eligible voters in the Guan district will vote only in the presidential election but not in the parliamentary elections in the Buem constituency.
Prior to this release, the joint consultative committee which represents the four Traditional Areas (Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe and Lolobi) in the newly created Guan District under the Oti Region with the backing of their citizens served notice that they will not participate in the general elections if they were not allowed to elect their own parliamentary candidate.
To this end, they noted that any attempt to make them vote in the parliamentary election under the Buem Constituency will be resisted. Instead they will only vote for Presidential and boycott any parliamentary ballots.
They also revealed that no candidate either from Buem or Hohoe had campaigned in their area.
More so, the notice of poll that came there 21 days ahead of the elections did not include parliamentary, hence they will wait and vote for their parliamentary candidate when their constituency is duly created.
It is also important to note that the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision about a month ago ruled that the traditional areas of Santrofi, Akpafu, Likpe and Lolobi which make up the new Guan District cannot fall within the Hohoe Constituency.
This is because the said traditional areas following the creation of new regions ended up falling within the Oti Region.
Whereas the Hohoe Constituency on the other hand falls within the current Volta Region amidst the constitutional requirement that a constituency shall not fall within more than one region, the Apex Court took the view that there was no such limitation placed on the President in creating regions but rather the law showing the areas covering constituencies ought to be amended to reflect the current regional distribution. The court, therefore, concluded that C.95 is inconsistent with article 47 (2) of the constitution.
The Court finally ordered the Electoral Commission to amend CI 95 to ensure that the said traditional areas do not fall within two regions.
From Fred Duodu, Ho (k.duodu@yahoo.com)