A-G asks Supreme Court to allow Amewu to be gazetted

The Attorney-General (A-G) has asked the Supreme Court to quash a decision by the Ho High Court to put an injunction on the gazetting of Member of Parliament-elect of Hohoe, Mr John Peter Amewu.

In an application invoking the supervisory jurisdiction of the apex court, the A-G contends that the Ho High Court had no jurisdiction to make that decision because the entire legal action leading to the decision was a nullity.

According to the A-G, the action before the Ho High Court, although couched as a Human rights action under Article 33 of the 1992 Constitution, was a clearly a parliamentary election petition, which could not be instituted under Article 33 of the 1992 Constitution.

“The entire proceedings at the High Court, Ho, together with the orders emanating from there is a nullity.

The High Court has no jurisdiction under article 33 of the Constitution to entertain a matter in the nature of a parliamentary election petition and to grant any reliefs(s) interim, interlocutory or final, available in any parliamentary election commended under article 99 and section 16 of the Representation of the People’s Law, 1992 (PNDC 284), the A-G argued,” the A-G argued in the application filed Tuesday, December 29, 2020.

Abridgment of time

The Supreme Court was expected to hear the matter on January 21, next year, but the A-G has filed an application for abridgment of time to bring the case forward.

In its application the A-G argued that the case ought to be heard early because it had implications on the composition of the next parliament scheduled for January 7, next year.

“It is of outmost necessity that the application invoking the supervisory jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, through which the Court can make a determination of whether the proceedings at the High Court, Ho, are valid, or proper, be disposed of expeditiously and in any event, before January 7, 2021”, the A-G averred.

The application for abridgment of time is expected to be heard by the Supreme Court Wednesday (December 30)

Background

On December 23, the Ho High Court, presided over by Justice George Buadi granted an interim injunction restraining the EC from gazetting, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate, Mr John Peter Amewu as the MP-elect for Hohoe.

This followed an ex parte application filed by five individuals, including the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate for the Hohoe constituency, Professor Margaret Kweku.

The applicants had argued that the election of Mr Amewu as the MP-elect was fraught with many “deficiencies” and that Mr Amewu “was not duly elected to represent the people of Hohoe Constituency.

It was basically the contention of the applicants that voters in Santrofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi, (SALL) were only given the opportunity to vote in the Presidential election and not the parliamentary election.

It must be noted that the EC did not conduct parliamentary elections in SALL following a Supreme Court decision in June this year, which declared that it was unconstitutional for SALL which is now in the Oti Region to be part of Hohoe constituency which is in the Volta Region.

According to the apex court, Per Article 47 (2) of the 1992 Constitution, “no constituency shall fall within more than one region.”

Writer’s email: emma.hawkson@graphic.com.gh