The Supreme Court, by a unanimous decision, has quashed a decision by the Ho high court granting an interim injunction to stop the Electoral Commission from gazetting the 2020 parliamentary election results for Hohoe in the Volta Region.
The five-member Supreme Court panel, presided over by Justice Yaw Appaw, held that the application by the interested parties, judging from their own submissions both at the high court in Ho and at the Supreme Court, suggests that they were seeking the enforcement of their fundamental human rights to vote in the elections organised by the EC.
However, the judges said, there is no justifiable reason why the election of the MP-elect for Hohoe, John Peter Amewu, should be a matter of contention to necessitate an interim injunction order to stop the gazetting of results.
The court ruled that if the interested parties are seeking enforcement of their fundamental human rights, their action should be directed at the Electoral Commission, and not the duly elected MP for Hohoe.
The Supreme Court also held that the high court judge erred in deciding to grant an interim injunction against the gazetting of the result of the parliamentary contest for Hohoe in the 2020 general election.
AG’s case as filed and reliefs sought
On 29 December 2020, the Attorney General filed a motion on notice at the Supreme Court, praying the court to quash the decision by the Ho high court which granted an interim injunction in an ex parte application by five individuals, seeking to stop the EC from gazetting the parliamentary results for Hohoe from the 7 December 2020 general election.
The motion, entitled “The Republic versus High Court, Ho, ex parte Attorney General (applicant), Professor Margaret Kweku, Simon Alan Opoku-Minta, John Kwame Obompeh, Godfred Koku Fofie, Felix Quarshie (interested parties)”, sought, among other things, an order of certiorari, directed at the high court in Ho with Justice George Buadi presiding, to “bring into this court for the purpose of being quashed the orders of the court dated 23 December 2020 in Suit No E12/40/2021, entitled ‘In the matter of an application under Article 33 of the Constitution 1992 and Order 67 of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2004 (CI 47) and the inherent jurisdiction of the high court between Professor Margaret Kweku, Simon Alan Opoku-Mintah, John Kwame Obompeh, Godfred Koku Fofie, Felix Quarshie and the Electoral Commission, Wisdom Kofi Akpakli, John Peter Amewu and the Attorney General’”.
The Attorney General also sought an order prohibiting the high court in Ho from hearing or conducting further proceedings in the said case.
The Attorney General’s contention is that the orders of the Ho high court dated 23 December 2020 constituted a “patent error on the face of the record, to the extent that they purported to confer on the applicants (interested parties herein), non-existent voting rights in respect of the Hohoe constituency in the Volta Region”.
Attorney General’s argument
According to the statement of case filed by the Attorney General on behalf of the MP-elect for Hohoe, the facts made it abundantly clear that the pursuit of the action filed by the interested parties at the high court in Ho was an attempt to enforce a non-existent right.
The dispute centred around four towns, formerly part of Volta but now situated in Oti, following its creation as a new region last year. Individuals in these towns, where the 2020 parliamentary election was deferred, argued that they should be allowed to take part in the race to elect an MP for Hohoe.
“The interested parties have already been told by this Honourable Court that, to the extent that CI 95 places their traditional areas of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe and Lolobi in the Hohoe constituency, same is unconstitutional.
“CI 95 ought to be amended in order to place the said traditional areas in the Oti Region. They ceased to be part of the Hohoe constituency in Volta Region immediately the Oti Region was created and they were put thereunder.
“The alleged failure of the Electoral Commission to amend CI 95 to give effect to the boundaries of the new regions does not mean that the interested parties, together with the residents of the four areas, can continue to assert voting rights in the Hohoe constituency. To do so will be inconsistent with Article 47(2), which prohibits a constituency from straddling two regions, and will create further constitutional chaos,” the statement of case said.
“It is thus beyond doubt that the action at the high court, Ho, is a palpable abuse of the process. The wrongful assumption of jurisdiction by Justice Buadi was a serious error apparent on the face of the record. This court ought to exercise its supervisory jurisdiction to prevent a situation where the interested parties will, through the back door, surreptitiously seek to assert the right to vote in a manner which is constitutionally frowned upon.
“The interested parties’ case is born out of mischief and an attempt to judicially sanction an unconstitutionality. It is merely a vile attempt to upset the hard-won electoral victory of the winner of the parliamentary election in Hohoe constituency through an unjustified invocation of the court’s human rights jurisdiction,” the Attorney General further said.
Background
On 7 December 2020, elections were held throughout the country to elect a president and members of Parliament for all 275 constituencies extant in Ghana.
The parliamentary election in Hohoe, Volta Region, ended in the Electoral Commission’s due declaration of John Peter Amewu (standing on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party) as the winner, having obtained 26,952 ballots – 55.18% of the popular vote.
The results of the parliamentary election nationwide were duly gazetted by the EC on Tuesday 22 December 2020.
However, on 23 December 2020, the interested parties listed above, led by the losing National Democratic Congress parliamentary candidate for Hohoe, invoked the jurisdiction of the Ho high court under Article 33, claiming a violation of their human rights in the conduct of the election in Hohoe.
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