THE TEMA High Court ‘A’ has thrown out the suit brought by some aggrieved members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Tema East Constituency of the Greater Accra Region;
The suit sought to get the results of last weekend’s constituency elections at some polling stations nullified for fresh elections to be held.
According to the presiding judge, Sabastian Adjei Frimpong, the plaintiffs should have exhausted all constitutional procedures of the party for redress before running to court. He, therefore, described their case as premature.
Prior to the NPP’s constituency primaries, some aggrieved members of the party had secured a court injunction and restrained the party from organising the primaries, in the constituency.
The plaintiffs in the case were Evans Nartey Quaye, polling station chairman for Oklor Kofi Electoral Area; Hassan Ibrahim Bancey, polling station chairman for Padmore Electoral Area; Leticia Armah, women organiser for Homowo Electoral Area and George Williams, an aspirant for the position of secretary for Kwesi Plange Electoral Area.
They wanted the court to restrain the party from conducting any polls in the constituency using the newly compiled albums.
Reasons given in the suit, brought against the Greater Accra Regional and Tema East Constituency chairmen, alleged that the polling station elections held on January 20, 2018 were fraught with irregularities, such as sale of polling station forms, which started as late as 11:00 am and that they were expected to complete and submit them to the Polling Station Election Committee (PSEC) before 2:00 pm, “which is contrary to the rules and regulations.”
In addition, the plaintiffs stated that all aspirants who completed their forms and submitted them at 2:00 pm had their forms rejected on grounds that the nomination had closed.
However, counsel for the defendants indicated that the plaintiffs, who happened to be polling station executives in the constituency, did not go through the party’s constitutional procedures for redress by the national executives before heading to court.
The counsel, Garry Nimako, believed that the plaintiffs had breached the party’s constitution, which enjoins members to have their grievances resolved through the party structure.
According to the lawyer for the plaintiffs, Eric Essuman, the decision of the court is a lesson to all party members who might attempt to sue the party on matters concerning it (party) without using the party’s structure.
Speaking to the DAILY GUIDE, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, said he had issued open invitation to all aggrieved members to come on board and rally behind the party to achieve its promises to Ghanaians and win the 2020 polls again.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema