The upcoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primaries for the Binduri Constituency in the Upper East Region faces a legal injunction just days before the elections.
A plaintiff, Alex Amolbugri Avoka, filed a motion on notice at the Bolgatanga High Court seeking an interlocutory injunction against the defendants—the NPP national and regional executives as well as the Electoral Commission—to halt the Binduri parliamentary primaries.
The injunction application specifically aims to stop the acclamation of a sole candidate as the parliamentary contestant for Binduri on grounds that it would be unfair. The plaintiff contends that allowing only one candidate to run unopposed deprives the constituency members of options to choose their preferred representative.
Richard Abaaduko Adazabra Esq., representing the plaintiff, argued before the court that allowing all aspirants to contest will serve the interests of democracy and the party at large.
The court is expected to rule on the injunction application on 25th January 2024, two days before the scheduled Binduri NPP parliamentary elections.
When Alex Avoka spoke to Mark Smith on the Day Break Upper East Show today, he stated that there is a deliberate and consistent, albeit illegal attempt to boot him out of the elections.
“The fact is that what they used to disqualify me was baseless. You people said I have reduced my age. Secondly, you said I have not even been to the university. These are what they used to disqualify me. They even asked me to go for an appeal in Accra. I went for the appeal with my university documents and an affidavit I had in the Kumasi High Court. When I went to the Appeals Committee, they told me I would hear from them. What they [National Parliamentary Vetting Committee at the Regional Level] said was that I hadn’t gone to the school at all.”
Mr. Avoka explained that he only saw that his disqualification had been upheld by the National Appeals Committee but had not been written to officially. He went on to claim that his private conversations with the National Chairman of the party, Stephen Ntim, confirmed that his disqualification had been overturned, thus his surprise that his disqualification was upheld by news on social media.
The disqualified candidate hopes for redemption through the courts.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
