An aspiring National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Ketu South, Mr Albert Kwasi Zigah, has filed a writ at an Accra High Court against his disqualification by the party to contest the primary.
Reliefs
The plaintiff is seeking a declaration that his disqualification from contesting the parliamentary primary of the Ketu South Constituency of the NDC was unlawful, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.
He is also seeking an order to set aside his said disqualification. Furthermore, he wants a declaration that the holding of the said parliamentary primary without his involvement, having been unlawfully disqualified, is equally unlawful, null and void. Joined in the suit is the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Mr Fifi Kwetey, who won the primary conducted on December 29, 2015.
According to his counsel, Mr Evans Gadeto Djikunu, the plaintiff, additionally is seeking an order of injunction to restrain the NDC either by itself, its servants, agents, workmen or otherwise from proceeding to put up the candidate who won the unlawful parliamentary primary in the Ketu South Constituency as its candidate to contest the 2016 general election.
He seeks a further order that the plaintiff’s said disqualification be wholly set aside and a re-run of the parliamentary primary conducted to include the plaintiff as a contestant.
The plaintiff again is seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining the second defendant, Mr Kwetey, from holding himself out as the NDC Parliamentary Candidate for the Ketu South Constituency in the 2016 general election, and any other orders as the court may deem fit.
Statement of claim In his statement of claim, Mr Zigah said he was at all material times a member of the NDC at its Aflao branch in the Volta Region and had been a member since the year 1992 and therefore applied to contest the 2015 parliamentary primary of the NDC in the Ketu South Constituency.
The plaintiff said the second defendant, Mr Kwetey was being joined to the suit by virtue of the fact that the final decision of the court will ultimately affect him. There is therefore the need for him to be heard in the suit.
He averred that some matters prior to the conduct of the 2012 general election in his constituency remained unresolved, which compelled him to stand as an independent candidate during the said election.
He said further that after the said election, however, and by a series of correspondence between February 2013 and October 2014 and at a subsequent meeting held in Ho, his membership of the NDC was restored and he was pardoned for contesting the 2012 election as an independent candidate.
According to the plaintiff, when nominations were opened for parliamentary primaries of the NDC for the 2016 general election, he filed his nomination to contest the parliamentary primary in the Ketu South Constituency as a candidate of the NDC.
Mr Zigah said at the end of his vetting, he was informed that his restoration to the status of a member of the NDC had raised some constitutional and legal issues and so the matter had been referred to the National Secretariat for a decision to be taken.
He said whilst the wranglings were going on, the outcome of the Complaint and Conflict Resolution Committee was not communicated to him before the parliamentary primary was conducted on December 29, 2015, thereby truncating the whole internal grievance resolution procedure and that he rather heard of his disqualification on Joy FM,a radio station in Accra.
Mr Zigah stated that in view of his unlawful disqualification, he was denied the opportunity to offer himself as a participant in the primary, hence his action to seek those reliefs.
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