THE Koforidua High Court has placed an interlocutory injunction on the Electoral Commission in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region from conducting the District level election which is scheduled to be held on January 17, 2023.
The applicants Michael Tetteh, and Angel Agyemang, both residents of Agormanya and Asitey respectively are restraining the respondent, the Electoral Commission, and its agents or officers from conducting the District Level Elections.
The move is to determine the conclusion of the case on the violation of their constitutional right to vote in the upcoming elections according to article 33 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana.
The applicants noted that the commission has failed to conduct voter registration exercise to enable them to register having attained 18 years.
Paragraph 8 of the affidavit by the applicants states “that since turning 18, we have not had any opportunity to register to vote or be qualified to be elected as Assembly Members in the Lower Manya Krobo District Assembly.”
It added that “we have been further advised and believe same to be true that our right to vote is likely to be contravened if the Respondent is allowed to conduct the district level elections in Lower Manya Krobo district”.
The applicants prayed the court to restrain the Electoral Commission from conducting the elections until the commission conducts the voter registration exercise per article 45(a) of the constitution.
The Electoral Commission is mandated to compile the register of voters and revise it at such periods as may be determined by law.
The municipality was therefore scheduled to hold the district-level election on January 17, 2023, in which a total of 127 male candidates are vying to represent their electoral areas whilst 280 are contesting the Unit Committee polls.
The district-level elections were not held for eight years in Lower Manya Krobo due to a dispute between the Municipality and Dangme West District, now known as Shai-Osudoku over 11 electoral areas created at Akuse.
The dispute which started with the defection of some Akuse assembly members to the then Dangme West District, was, however, settled by a Supreme Court ruling in favor of Lower Manya Krobo.
The election of Assembly members and unit committee members was immediately held in 2013 and subsequent periods however the election has not been coterminous with the national calendar of the electoral commission.
Meanwhile, the Konor of Manya Krobo Traditional Area, Nene Sakite in a petition dated 12 December 2022, called on EC to reconsider mainstreaming the district-level elections in Lower Manya Krobo with the national routine.
“…we wish to kindly plead and appeal to the Electoral Commission of Ghana to reconsider its decision in the conduct of the Lower Manya Krobo District Level Elections in January 2023 to enable the district to join the nationwide District Level Elections in 2023.”
– BY Daniel Bampoe