An Accra High Court has set Tuesday, March 22 to deliver a ruling on whether or not Dr Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings can contest the 2016 elections as the Klottey Korle Constituency parliamentary candidate for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The decision of the court presided over by Justice Kwaku Ackaah Boafo followed hours of legal arguments by parties in the case last Friday.
Dr Zanetor’s lawyer, Godwin Edudzie Tamakloe, argued among other things that his client had only been elected as a nominee for the constituency and that the case of the plaintiff was frivolous and premature.
He said the court ought to dismiss the entire suit challenging the eligibility of Dr Zanetor Rawlings.
But Garry Nimako Marfo, lawyer for Nii Armah Ashietey, the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency, disagreed and indicated that they were opposed to the motion to dismiss the case.
He said the NDC’s constitution was not superior to the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
Garry was empathic that Article 94 (1) (a) was applicable in the case.
He alleged that Tamakloe had been captured on a nine-minute tape recording saying that they would frustrate the case in court.
Earlier, Nii John Coleman, a party in the case, suddenly withdrew from the suit, leaving Nii Armah Ashietey as the sole plaintiff in the case.
He claimed that he was compelled to withdraw following the intervention of party elders in the region.
Incumbent MP Nii Armah Ashietey and Nii John Coleman, who both lost in the primary, filed a suit praying the court to prevent Dr Zanetor from holding herself out as parliamentary candidate-elect for the constituency on the ticket of the NDC.
The two filed a joint suit praying the court to declare as null and void, the November 21, 2015 primary that elected Dr Zanetor as the parliamentary candidate for the area.
They further want an order of injunction restraining Dr Zanetor, her agent, privies or anyone claiming through her from holding the defendant as the parliamentary candidate-elect for the constituency until the case before the court is disposed of.
The lawyer for the two defeated candidates, aside cost and legal fees against the defendants, also wants the court to order the party to re-run the elections between the plaintiffs in accordance with the NDC’s constitution within one week of the annulment of the election.
They claim Dr Zanetor Rawlings’ election was unlawful because she is not a registered voter.
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