Sam George’s suit against EC thrown out
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo-Prampram suffered a double agony at the Tema High Court, as his suit seeking to restrain the Electoral Commission from holding a scheduled workshop in the Ningo-Prampram constituency was thrown out.
The EC held the meeting under tight security. However, Mr George secured an injunction to stop the meeting. He appeared to have shown little interest in the case since then. It came back to haunt him.
The vocal MP will also pay GHC 6,000 as cost awarded against him because his case failed to meet the requirements of order 55, rule 6 (2 and 3) of the High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2004 (CI 47).
The law requires, “Within 14 days after filing the Notice of application, the applicant shall file such number of copies of the applicant’s statement of case as the Registrar shall determine setting out fully his arguments and relevant statutes or decided cases he wishes the Court to consider”.
“If the applicant does not file a statement of case within the time stipulated in subrule 2, the Registrar shall certify that fact to the Court which may dismiss the application for non-prosecution or make such other order as it may consider appropriate”.
When the Court, presided over by Justice Eugene Nzante Nyadu, called the case on Thursday, neither the legislator nor his legal representatives were in Court. But the Electoral Commission, the respondent, was represented.
It was the case of the EC that the applicant failed to comply with the provisions of order 55, rule 6 (2 and 3) of the High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2004 (CI 47), which required that Mr George file a statement of claim that the commission could respond to.
He said the applicant filed the case on April 24, 2020, but as of May 28, Mr George did not follow up with the statement of claim.
With no claims from the applicants that required responses from the EC, the Commission’s lawyer asked that the case be dismissed as it lacked the necessary legal ingredients.
The Court agreed.
Justice Eugene Nyante Nyadu was terse in his ruling. He said the application brought under Order 55 is struck out as prayed for non-compliance. Cost of Six Thousand Ghana Cedis (Ghc 6, 000. 00) is awarded against the applicant”.
Background.
Mr George enjoyed a temporary legal victory on April 24, 2020.
The Court on that day granted an ex-parte motion that prevented the (EC) from holding a planned workshop on a new voter registration exercise at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region.
The Court granted the demand of Mr George, to freeze the workshop, which was meant to strategise for the execution of a new voters’ register.
The compilation of the new register has received protests from most of the country’s major opposition parties. Eighteen (18) top civil society organisations jointly opposed the compilation of the register, saying it was needless.
But the EC appears poised to proceed with it. The court order given by Justice John Nyadu temporarily froze the EC’s decision, which also came at a time the government had banned all forms of social gatherings.