The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Akwatia, Ernest Kumi, has instituted an action at the Supreme Court seeking an order from the apex court of the land to quash a decision of the Koforidua High Court, which first granted an interim injunction against his swearing-in as MP and further dismissed an application to set aside the interim injunction orders of the court.
Mr Ernest Kumi’s application, with suit number JS/24/2025, was filed at the Supreme Court registry on Wednesday, 8 January 2025. Lawyer Gary Nimako Marfo of Marfo and Associates, who doubles as the director of legal affairs for the NPP, is the lawyer representing Mr Ernest Kumi in the said application.
High Court ruling
Among others, the ruling of Justice Emmanuel Senyo Amedahe, which Mr Ernest Kumi is challenging, reads as follows: “The Parliamentary elections are over, and Parliament is gearing up to swear into office only parliamentarians per the names forwarded to the Clerk of Parliament by the Commission after having gazetted the same. By implication, no elected person can be sworn into office when his or her name has not been forwarded to the Clerk of Parliament through the vehicle of Regulation 43 (2) (a) and (b) of CI. 127.
“The relief sought by the 1st Respondent (Ernest Kumi) in his ex-parte application therein is to prevent the Applicant herein from being sworn in as a parliamentarian because he is challenging the process of his election into office, before this Court. This Court assumed jurisdiction to hear the petition filed in this matter and heard the application for an interim injunction based on the evidence before it that the E.C. gazetted the results of the Akwatia constituency as part of the 274 constituencies as it announced at its press conference on 25 December 2024.
“It is because the Applicant’s result has been gazetted and his name forwarded to the Clerk of Parliament that he will be sworn in as a Member of Parliament on the 7 January 2025, as the representative of the people of Akwatia constituency if the interim injunction is set aside. The 25 December 2024 stands as this instant application to set it aside is dismissed,” Justice Emmanuel Senyo Amedahe’s ruling read in part.
Applicant’s contention
The applicant, Ernest Kumi, contends that the High Court presided over by Justice Emmanuel Senyo Amedahe, sitting at High Court 3, Koforidua, committed a jurisdictional error of law apparent on the face of the record when he assumed jurisdiction in parliamentary elections petition at Akwatia constituency filed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Henry B. Yiadom, at the time when the Electoral Commission had not published the gazette notification of the results to which the election relates in the gazette.
Mr Kumi further contends that the High Court judge breached the rules of natural justice when he heard and granted an application for an interim injunction against him (Ernest Kumi) without notice to him when he knew or ought to have known that Ernest Kumi and the constituents of Akwatia would be injuriously affected by the grant of the said interim injunction.
The applicant, also noted as the last ground for his application that the High Court judge was biased and highly prejudiced against him (Ernest Kumi) to the extent that even when he was informed that there was no gazette notification of the parliamentary election results in the Akwatia constituency, he proceeded to rely on online news portals and a repealed legislation to hold that the results had been gazetted.
Reliefs sought
To this end, Mr Ernest Kumi is seeking four reliefs from the Supreme Court in his action. First is; “A declaration that the petition filed by 1st Interested Party (Henry B. Yiadom) on 31 December 2024 in the absence of the gazette notification of the parliamentary election results to which the election relates is incompetent as same did not properly invoke the jurisdiction of the High Court and that any order founded on the same is void and of no effect.
Secondly, Mr Kumi is seeking “an order of prohibition prohibiting the learned High Court Judge (Justice Emmanuel Senyo Amedahe) from continuing to hear and determine the election petition filed by (Henry B. Yiadom) on 31 December 2024 for lack of jurisdiction.
Thirdly, “an order of certiorari quashing the ruling of His Lordship Justice Emmanuel Senyo Amadehe, sitting at the High Court 3, Koforidua dated 6 January 2025, the petition filed on 31 December 2024 and the Interim Injunction order dated 2 January 2025 made pursuant to the petition and lastly, any other orders the court may deem fit.
Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra
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