High Court orders NPP to hold primary at Kwesimintim

An Accra High Court on Friday directed the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), to take steps to conduct its Parliamentary Primary at Kwesimintim constituency in the Western Region.

This was after the court cleared Mr Joseph Mensah, a contender as qualified to contest that election.

Last year (2015) an injunction was placed on the Kwesimintim constituency election which is the NPP’s only yet to held poll, following Mr Mensah’s disqualification from the contest.

Mr. Joseph Mensah, aka Joe Mensah and the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency, Joe Baidoe Ansah, filed their nominations to contest the primary, which was expected to have taken place on Saturday June 13, 2015.

But, before the election could even come on, the NPP announced the disqualification of Joe Mensah, which prompted him to go to court to seek a redress.

The party had claimed that it did not know Mr Mensah and that he had forged a membership card to enable him contest the election, a claim that the latter outrightly rejected insisting he has been an NPP member since 2003.

Kasapa FM’s Court Correspondent, Daakyehene Ofosu Agyeman reported that the Presiding Judge, Rosseta Bernasko Essah in her ruling said upon looking at the facts presented before her, she found no basis to disqualify Mr Mensah.

She thus asked the party to go ahead to hold the election to enable the NPP get a candidate to contest in the upcoming December 7 Parliamentary election.