Wenchi High Court Throws Out NDC Over Techiman South Election

The High Court in Wenchi, Bono Region, this afternoon, threw out an ex-parte injunction application by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) against the swearing-in of the New Patriotic Party’s Martin Adjei Korsah as MP for Techiman South.

The presiding judge, Fred Nawura, said it would have been unfair to the people of the Constituency if he had granted the injunction saying the people of Techiman South deserve a representative in Parliament whether the election there was flawed or not.

“I shall refuse the Ex-parte injunction application. I think the people of Techiman South needs a representative at the swearing-in. To injunct the 1st respondent will be unfair. At the end of the trial, if it is established that the election was not done properly, I shall make my orders. I hereby refuse the application,” the judge is quoted as saying.

This means that on Thursday, the NDC’s Christopher Beyere Baasongti will either brave his way to Parliament or lose out the seat which the NDC’s collation from polling stations in the constituency shows that Baasongti won the election by some 295 votes.

Incidentally, no official declaration was done at Techiman South as required by law to formally affirm the winner of the parliamentary race.

The Techiman South Parliamentary was one of the bloodiest and the most dramatic flashpoint of the 2020 elections, with three people shot dead by security officers in the confusion that rocked the elections there.

An NDC stronghold, the main opposition party’s presidential candidate had comfortably won the Presidential vote there. However, in respect of the parliamentary election, after the vote had been declared for the NDC’s Parliamentary Candidate at the various polling stations, the Electoral Commission (EC) simply declined to collate the results and officially declare the winner in the constituency. 

Consequently, per pink sheets available, the NDC’s Parliamentary Candidate won the seat but the EC later declared the seat for the NPP and refused to publish a statement of poll as required by law.

That was the main reason why the NDC went to court to injunct the swearing-in of the NPP’s candidate as MP, but the court has thrown out the case on grounds that the people of constituency deserve to have an MP at all cost. 

The obvious double standards of the judiciary become evident when the Supreme Court threw out an injunction secured by 13 communities of 17,000 strong when they sought justice in court because they will not be having a parliamentary representative because the Jean Mensa-led EC disallowed them from voting for a parliamentary candidate.