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A Tamale High Court, presided over by his Lordship Charles Gyamfi–Danquah, has formally granted an indefinite injunction plea brought before it by the disqualified National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary aspirant, Nanburi Derrick.

The petitioner asked the court to prevent the ruling NDC from holding a parliamentary primary in the Bunkpurugu Constituency in the Northern Region until his illegal disqualification had been overturned.
 

The aspirant, who is a former Member of Parliament for the area, was alleged to have been disqualified for joining the  Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings-led National Democratic Party (NDP).

As a result, the National Executive Committee (NEC) dropped his name from the list of qualified aspirants seeking to lead the constituency on the ticket of the NDC in 2016.

 Indefinite injunction

The indefinite injunction means the NDC cannot hold primaries in the Bunkpurugu Constituency until the court decides otherwise.

The Bunkpurugu Constituency remains the only constituency in the Northern Region that is yet to conduct its primary to select a parliamentary candidate for the 2016 elections because of a long-standing legal tussle.

In his ruling, the trial judge indicated that the NDC failed to follow laid-down rules in disqualifying the candidate and, therefore, advised both parties to come to a compromise in order to allow for the elections to be conducted.

According to counsel for Mr Nanburi, the Northern Regional Secretariat of the NDC and the Electoral Commission (EC) have both been served with the injunction and could be cited for contempt if they go ahead to conduct the primary in the constituency.

The Campaign Coordinator for the disqualified aspirant, Linlaar Kantam, emphasised that "we are very grateful that at the end of the day justice and rule of law has prevailed and that we are ready for the election. At the end of the day, we know victory shall be ours in Bunkpurugu."

In reaction to the injunction, the Northern Regional Director of Elections for the NDC, Tanko Rashid, said the party would take the necessary action.