Why Amasaman NPP executives want court to bar MP aspirant from contesting

Three executives of the New Patriotic Party in Amasaman Constituency have gone to court to restrain Akwasi Afrifa-Mensah from holding himself up as the area’s Parliamentary candidate.

They also want the court to order the Electoral Commission to prevent  Mr Afrifa- Mensah from picking and filing nomination forms to contest the 2020 parliamentary elections in the constituency.

The plaintiffs—Isaac Owusu Ansah, Mohammed Gumah, both polling station chairmen and Louis Boakye, a polling station youth organiser—hold the view that it will be a miscarriage of justice if a pending case against the disqualification of one Rockson Adu Boahene as a parliamentary candidate is not determined before the EC gives green light to the NPP aspirant in the constituency to contest the December election.

Joint to the suit is the Electoral Commission and the District Director of the Commission.

In their statement of claim, the plaintiffs indicated that in July 2019, the Amasaman Constituency of the NPP opened nominations for the election of Parliamentary primaries and invited interested persons to pick the forms.

The plaintiffs say Rockson Adu Boahene, a member of the Amasaman constituency NPP picked up nomination forms to contest the election.

But he was disqualified.

Dissatisfied with the decision, Mr Adu Boahene sued the Amasaman constituency of the NPP at the High Court seeking an order of interlocutory injunction to restrain the EC from organising any constituency elections.

The plaintiffs say Mr Adu Boahene also sought for an order that he is a qualified candidate to contest the constituency parliamentary election in the constituency.

He also filed an interlocutory injunction against the party in Amasaman from conducting any parliamentary election in the constituency until the final determination of the suit.

The plaintiffs say the court adjourned the hearing of the interlocutory injunction application and the substantive case to January 14, 2020.

But the NPP on December 15 conducted the party’s primaries in the constituency, which Mr Afrifa-Mensah was declared the winner.

It is the case of the plaintiffs that the legal effect of the suit and the pending interlocutory injunction application was that the NPP in the Amasaman constituency was stopped from conducting the constituency parliamentary election until the final determination of Mr Adu Boahene’s suit.

They argued that the party breached the law as there was a writ of summons and statement of claim as well as interlocutory injunction pending before the Accra High Court against the primaries.

According to the court document, Mr Adu Boahene as the plaintiff in the said lawsuit entered into terms of a settlement with the defendants.

However, before the terms could be filed and adopted by the court as the court’s consent judgement, the defendants had gone ahead to hold the NPP parliamentary primaries in the Amansaman constituency.

Angered by the party’s decision, the plaintiffs say they instituted an action on January 20, 2020, to challenge the validity of the election when there were pending suits and an interlocutory injunction application on the said election.

They say the suit challenging the validity of the election of Mr Afrifa Mensah as the party’s parliamentary candidate for Amasaman is still pending.

With the Electoral Commission scheduled to open nominations from October 5 to October 9, 2020, the plaintiffs are of the view that if the Commission allows Mr Afrifa-Mensah to pick nomination forms to contest as the NPP parliamentary candidate for Amasaman, the outcome of the case pending before court would be irrelevant.