The Ho High Court presided over by Justice George Buadi has granted an interim injunction restraining the Electoral Commission from gazetting the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) John Peter Amewu as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hohoe.
This was after an ex parte application by residents in the Guan district who were not given the opportunity to vote in parliamentary elections.
Eligible voters within areas in the newly created district, namely Santrofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi, were only allowed to take part in the presidential election on December 7, 2020.
The applicants were represented in court by Tsatsu Tsikata and are demanding the enforcement of their fundamental human right to vote.
A lawyer for the plaintiff, Nelson Kporha in a Citi News interview explained that: “What really happened is that on the eve of the election, the EC asked them not to participate in the election, which is a denial of their fundamental human rights. The EC, in turn, told them that a constituency, which is the Guan constituency will be created for them.”
“These people from this enclave earlier on July 31 wrote to the EC in the quest to follow up on the EC’s position. Their letter was not responded to, until the eve of elections when the EC told them that they can only vote in the presidential elections. Now, the life of this Parliament comes to an end on the 6th of January. So these people are not going to be represented in the next Parliament. They did not vote for an MP, and will not be represented.”
Mr. Amewu won the seat with 26,952 votes in his third attempt at becoming the parliamentary representative for Hohoe while his National Democratic Congress (NDC) opponent, Margaret Kweku, polled 21,821 votes.
Read the application for injunction below;
EC to initiate processes to create new constituency in Guan
The EC has disclosed that it will initiate processes leading to the creation of a new constituency in the Guan district when the 8th Parliament commences.
At the just-ended general election, the EC could not hold elections for registered voters in the Guan District to elect a Member of Parliament due to the absence of a constituency.
A source at the EC said the Commission was unable to create the Constituency because of the C.I. needed to create a constituency that could not mature in the 7th Parliament.The EC noted that the Supreme Court had ruled on when elections could be held in a newly created Constituency.
“It was not a deliberate attempt by the EC to deny the people of representation in Parliament. They could not have voted to elect an MP because it was not legally right for an MP to be voted for by two different districts,” the source said.
“By law, if a new constituency is created they have to join the new parliament, and whether the people will have a representation or not in the 8th Parliament, it will be another hurdle. As a Commission, we will do our part and leave the rest to the judicial process”.