‘Pink Sheet man’ Addison sues NPP
Lead counsel for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2013 presidential election petition, Mr Philip Addison, has dragged the party to court, demanding the annulment of the Korle Klottey parliamentary primary results.
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According to Mr Addison and Nii Adjei Tawiah, another member of the party, the primary on August 2, 2015, which was won by Mr Valentino Nii Noi Nortey, was illegal.
Joined to the suit is the Electoral Commission (EC), which they accused of conniving with the NPP to conduct the polls without giving due notices to the parliamentary aspirants except Nii Nortey.
The two filed a motion for default judgement against the NPP on the grounds that the party had failed to enter an appearance and file defence after the period to do so had elapsed.
However, the court refused to grant the default judgement, saying it would give its final ruling on the matter only after the plaintiffs had been able to justify why the reliefs they were seeking should be granted.
The court, presided over by Mrs Patience Mills Tetteh, adjourned the case to November 24, 2015.
Reliefs
The plaintiffs want the court to declare that the purported holding of the Korle Klottey primary on August 2, 2015, pursuant to a press release by the General Secretary of the NPP, Mr Kwabena Agyapong, was “arbitrary, unlawful and in violation of democratic principles”.
They are also seeking an order from the court to set aside the results of the purported primary.
“We want an order for the fresh conduct of the primary for the selection of a parliamentary candidate for the Korle Klottey constituency, in accordance with democratic principles and the rules and regulations of the NPP,” they averred.
Statement of claim
In their statement of claim, the plaintiffs said the Korle Klottey Parliamentary Elections Committee (PEC), in the exercise of its mandate under the rules and regulations governing parliamentary primaries issued by the NPP, announced via a letter dated July 31, 2015, signed by its Secretary and addressed to the General Secretary of the NPP, the regional secretary, the constituency secretary of the party and all aspirants that the date for the primary was August 8, 2015.
They averred that the meeting decided that the notice of poll was to be put up by the Korle Klottey PEC Secretary in the course of the week and the EC duly written to for the conduct of the polls.
Bizarrely, they claimed, on July 31, 2015 it came to their attention that a press release signed by the NPP General Secretary had announced that the Korle Klottey primary was to be organised on Sunday, August 2, 2015.
EC’s intervention
They claimed that the confused state of members and delegates of the party in the constituency was laid to rest when the Greater Accra Regional Director of Elections of the EC went on air in the evening of Saturday, August 1, 2015 and emphatically stated that the Korle Klottey constituency election would be held on August 8, 2015 and not on August 2, 2015.
“This position of the EC was reinforced by the chairman of the PEC, who also went on air on the same day to say that the election in the constituency would be held on August 8, 2015.
“Notwithstanding the aforesaid interventions, the NPP, in typical Rambo fashion, organised the primary, in collaboration with the EC and Nii Nortey but without reference to us the plaintiffs,” they said.
Different voters register
Against that background, they argued that there was no accreditation for the primary, while the voters register used for the election was not the one certified by the Korle Klottey PEC for the conduct of the polls.
They stated that the persons who organised the election on the said date procured a totally different voters register for use on that day, saying that “this infraction gave opportunity for persons whose names were not on the duly certified voters register to cast their ballots on August 2”.
They claimed that the constituency PEC, before the holding of the primary, had the duty of displaying the register of voters for interested members to peruse, providing the register to the aspirants at a fee in order to ensure a level playing field and announcing the date for elections, but “this was not done”.
“The alteration of the date from August 8 to August 2, 2015 was clearly unwarranted,” they argued.
Unresolved grievance
The statement said the plaintiffs, together with 434 delegates eligible to vote in the election, in adherence to the provisions of the constitution of the NPP, on August 7, 2015 duly petitioned the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NPP for an internal resolution of their grievance.
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“To date, nothing has been heard from that committee,” it said.