Kofi Adams Sued

Thirteen individuals in the Oti region have filed a lawsuit challenging the election of Kofi Adams as Member of Parliament for the Buem Constituency after been the former National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

In their suit, the petitioners contend that they were disenfranchised because there were no parliamentary elections in the 13 electoral areas of Satrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe, where they were supposed to cast their ballots.

Accordingly, the petitioners are requesting a “order of perpetual injunction preventing Kofi Adams from holding himself as an elected Member of Parliament for the constituency and from making himself sworn in as such.”

They are also trying to cancel the elections conducted in the constituency and to hold a new one involving the 13 electoral areas.

Kofi Adams was declared Member of Parliament-Elect for the Buem District, having cast 18,560 votes of the valid votes cast, while the New Patriotic Party’s Lawrence Kwame Aziale cast 6,854 votes, a distance of 11,706 votes.

But the petitioners claim that the total number of registered voters for the 13 electoral areas in the traditional SALL areas is 17,764.

“In the circumstances, the petitioners will argue that if the aforementioned 17,764 voters, including their good self, had not been denied their inalienable and constitutionally guaranteed right to elect a Member of Parliament of their choice, the results of the Buem Constituency elections could have been substantially different.”

The Petitioners would also claim that if the requests are not fulfilled by this Court, they will be “saddled with a Member of Parliament that they had no say in electing.”

The filing of the suit follows an ex parte appeal submitted by citizens of the district of Guan who have not been granted the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

The State, however, appealed the Ho High Court’s order granting an injunction against the swearing-in arguing that the court had no ability to hear the appeal.

Sourcce:Mynewsghana.net