AFAG Withdraws Case Against EC

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Created on Friday, 14 September 2012 10:03

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AFAG Withdraws Case Against EC

A SUIT that was filed at an Accra Human Rights Court to stop the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) from holding primaries at the yet to be created 45 new constituencies, has been withdrawn.

The suit was filed on September 12, by Mary Ohenewaa Afful, a lawyer on behalf of Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie, the chairman for the Alliance For Accountable Governance (AFAG) against the attorney-general, the EC and its chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan and the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia.

However, just a day after it was filed, Dr. Afriyie, the plaintiff, has filed a notice of discontinuation to stop the action which was yet to be heard by the court.

In the said application, Dr. Afriyie through his lawyer, was seeking the court to declare the purported NDC primaries conducted in the proposed new constituencies from July 2012 to date, as inconsistent with Articles 47(5) and A11 (7) of the 1992 Constitution and therefore “unconstitutional, void and of no legal effect.”

He was also praying for a perpetual injunction to restrain Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan and any other person succeeding the office of the EC from performing the function of the EC in regard to the creation of the new 45 constituencies until the CI 78 laid before parliament become a law.

He explained that the EC, in alliance with Asiedu Nketia, organized primaries in some districts to select parliamentary candidates ahead of the passing of the Constitutional Instrument 73 (CI73), which would give legal backing to the creation of the proposed 45 new districts.

According to him, although the EC has been dragged to court over the creation of these constituencies, the NDC went ahead to organize the primaries in some of these new constituencies under the supervision of the EC.

The recent primaries held by the NDC, he observed was illegal, as it smacked of a grand agenda to rig the coming December elections; an action which pre-empted the work of Parliament.

The EC, he added, had also engaged in an illegal act by supervising the primaries on behalf of the NDC.

The plaintiff explained that the CI establishing the new 45 constituencies was withdrawn and replaced with a new one after some errors were detected and this, he indicated, required 21 sitting days to mature after which the EC could go ahead with the creation of the new constituencies.

Dr. Afriyie said he did not fathom why the EC and the NDC were in such a rush to hold primaries for constituencies which did not exist.

Source: Mary Anane