NPP Constituency Election Dispute : High Court Grants Interim Injunction Against The Party In Asante Akyem Central Constituency
On Monday, 25th April, 2022, a judge in the High Court, General Jurisdiction, Accra, granted an interim injunction restraining the New Patriotic Party, its officers, agents, assigns, servants and anyone claiming and acting for and through the party from holding, conducting and supervising Constituency Elections across the Asante Akyem Central Constituency of the Ashanti Region.
In the substantive suit titled, GYEKYE RICHARDSON, GEORGE AMAKYE, PAUL ATTA ADARKWA & PETER ADU ASABRE V. NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY, the Plaintiffs caused their lawyers to issue a writ at the High Court claiming among others that officials of the party have infringed on their rights by not conducting Polling Station Elections in the one hundred and fourteen (114) Polling Stations in the constituency. They therefore asked the court to restrain the party from conducting Constituency Elections until Polling Station and Electoral Area Elections are properly organized.
At the hearing of the ex-parte application, Counsel for the Plaintiffs/Applicants, Kofi Owusu Boateng, Esq. argued that the rules of court allow for Applicants to make their application ex-parte as demanded by the exigency of the case.
He further argued that the Applicants, as members of the NPP will have their aspirations, hopes and dreams of becoming elected party executives at the Polling Station and Constituency levels dashed, if the party is allowed to continue to frustrate and deny them of their right to be voted for. He listed a number of machinations employed by officials of the party in the Constituency including, deliberately locking up the constituency office to prevent the Applicants from picking up nomination forms.
Counsel for the Applicants further contended that the party was frantically preparing to conduct Constituency Elections when Polling Station elections have not been conducted in the constituency.
Additionally, Counsel enumerated a number of attempts initiated by Applicants with the sole aim of resolving the matter amicably and ultimately, to exhaust internal conflict resolution remedies. These included several petitions to the national party, withdrawal of earlier suits and submission to party instituted ADR processes, all of which yielded no positive results.
Upon hearing Counsel’s arguments and having reviewed the depositions in the Affidavit in support of the motion, the Judge was of the opinion, among others, that there was a serious question of law to be determined in the substantive case and that the Plaintiffs, having shown that they have rights to be protected, will suffer irreparable damage if the Defendants are not restrained. He therefore granted the Application as prayed by Counsel for the Applicants.
It must be noted that while an Interlocutory Injunction is obtained prior to, and remains in force until trial, an Interim Injunction, on the other hand, is obtained ex-parte and will last for ten days following which the Applicant will have to re-apply, this time, with notice to the Defendant/Respondent.
The import of this ruling is that, for now, the New Patriotic Party is barred from organizing the upcoming Constituency elections in the Asante Akyem Central Constituency scheduled to take place from 28th April, 2022 to 2nd May, 2022 per a release by the General Secretary of the party, John Boadu.
