The Supreme Court has adjourned to Thursday, a case involving the Electoral Commssion (EC) and Member of Parliament (MP) for Effutu, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, acting for and on behalf of one Benjamin Eyi Mensah, a fisherman from Winneba in the Central Region.
[contextly_sidebar id=”BGGD5woL7KeLDqchiXBRLRkT0jvSSL39″]Benjamin Eyi Mensah, who wanted to contest in the upcoming district assembly elections, is seeking to annul the organization of the elections.
According to him, he was denied an opportunity to file his nomination despite meeting all conditions to be registered as a candidate because the EC closed nomination before the maturation of Constitutional Instrument (CI) 85.
Lawyer for the plaintiff, Alex Afenyo Markin told the court the EC had breached the constitution because there was no law which allowed for nominations to be opened and closed for district assembly elections.
According to Mr. Markin, the Legislative Instrument(1983) which was initially used to conduct elections had been declared null and void and the Constitutional Instrument(CI) 85 which was before Parliament had not been passed hence they could not go ahead to organise the upcoming district Assembly elections.
He therefore asked the Supreme Court to declare the action of the EC as null and void.
In his response,Counsel for the EC, Quarshie Idun told the court that eventhough C1 85 had not matured, the EC relied on C1 65 which also deals with the conduct of district assembly elections.
Counsel for the EC therefore prayed the court to adjourn the case due to seeming confusion in their camp on the laws governing the conduct of the District Assembly elections.
The case has therefore been adjourned to Wednesday.
The pending court case seems to have thrown the upcoming elections, scheduled for March 3 in limbo.
–
By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana