The Supreme Court will today, Wednesday, March 12, make a determination on a motion by convicted Akwatia MP, Ernest Yaw Kumi, that sought to set aside an injunction by a Koforidua High Court.
The High Court barred him from holding himself as a Member of Parliament for the constituency without first purging himself of contempt.
The five-member panel could not rule on the motion last month due to doubts about their capacity, given that the MP was in contempt.
Justice Gabriel Pwamang, the sole dissenting judge in February when the apex court stayed the sentencing of the MP by the Koforidua High Court, insisted that the Supreme Court could not grant him an audience while he remained in contempt.
The Supreme Court, by a 4-1 majority decision on February 26, stayed the High Court in Koforidua from sentencing the Member of Parliament for the Akwatia Constituency, Ernest Yaw Kumi, in a contempt case pending the final determination of a motion seeking to quash the ruling.
Justice Gabriel Pwamang dissented, while the four other members of the panel approved the stay.
Background
In a motion on notice for an order for certiorari and prohibition, the MP, through his counsel, contended that the High Court judge committed a jurisdictional error of law on the face of the record when he assumed jurisdiction in the parliamentary election petition at Akwatia Constituency at a time when the Electoral Commission had not published the Gazette Notification.
The MP argued that the High Court judge breached the rules of natural justice when he proceeded to hear and determine the contempt application despite the pendency of his (the MP’s) motion to set aside the said contempt application for want of jurisdiction.
According to him, the High Court judge was also biased and highly prejudiced against him when he, among others, refused to grant his counsel audience on the basis that counsel had not filed an Appearance in the contempt application.
The MP sought a declaration that the petition filed by Henry Boakye-Yiadom, the first Interested Party (IP), on December 31, 2024, in the absence of the Gazette Notification of the parliamentary election result, was incompetent, as it did not properly invoke the jurisdiction of the High Court, and that any order founded on the same is void and of no effect.
Mr. Kumi also sought a declaration that the contempt proceedings and ruling dated February 19, 2025, founded on a premature election petition filed on December 31, 2024, was void and of no effect.
The MP prayed for an order of certiorari from the Supreme Court quashing the Koforidua High Court ruling dated February 19, 2025, the petition filed on December 31, 2024, and the interim injunction order on January 2, 2025, as well as the ruling on January 6, 2025, made pursuant to the said premature election petition filed on December 31, 2024.
