Yet Another Bye-election?

The Court of Appeal has opened the way for a bye-election in the Mion Constituency which was 'won' by the NDC in election 2004 and put Alhassan Ahmed Yakubu in Parliament.

The NPP "losing" NPP candidate Mahama Negin Kwasi Samuel has been fighting the results ever since they were declared by the Electoral Commission. With the Court of Appeal upholding a lower court's earlier decision in favour of the NPP candidate, it is now quite certain that the Electoral Commission would have to conduct a bye-election in the constituency.

Mion MP?s Appeal Struck Out

Graphic -- The Court of Appeal has struck out an appeal filed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for the Mion Constituency in the Northern Region against the decision of the Tamale High Court which declared elections in the constituency null and void for non-compliance with the rules of the court.

The court struck out the case on the grounds that the appellant, Dr Alhassan Yakubu, did not comply with Rule 20 (1) of CI 19, which expects an appellant to file a written statement within 21 days after the appellant had been served with notification that records of appeal had been transmitted to the Court of Appeal.

The appellant, however, failed to file the written statement 21 days after he had been served with the notification as stipulated under the rules.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice A. Asare-Korang, with Mr Justice E. K. Piesare and Mr Justice R. K. Apaloo as members, deemed that the appellant did not comply with the rules of the court and accordingly struck out the appeal. The court, accordingly, awarded costs of ?5 million against him.

Counsel for the appellant, Mr Inusah Fuseini, said those anomalies were being rectified to enable the appellant to re-list the appeal, as well as apply for an extension of time within which to file a written statement.

Mr Inusah, who is also the Member of Parliament-elect for the Tamale Central Constituency, said what happened at the Court of Appeal bordered on matters of procedure, adding that the re-listing of the appeal would pave the way for the hearing of the substantive appeal against the lower court?s decision.

The Tamale High Court, in November 2005, ruled in favour of a New Patriotic Party (NPP) petitioner, Mr Samuel Mahama, who contested against Dr Yakubu in the December 7, 2004 parliamentary election but lost.

Mr Mahama petitioned the Tamale High Court against the declaration that Dr Yakubu had won the elections on the grounds that at the close of voting by 5 p.m. on December 7, 2004, a number of people were in the queue who could not vote because of shortage of electoral materials.

According to the petitioner, he would have won the election if those voters had cast their ballots.

The court upheld Mr Mahama?s petition and declared the election null and void, well after Dr Yakubu had been sworn in as the MP for the Mion Constituency.

Dr Yakubu, who was not satisfied with the High Court?s decision, filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal on the grounds that the ruling of the High Court was against the weight of evidence.

The appellant further argued that assuming the people in the queue who could not vote had cast their ballots, there was no way anybody could have known whom the votes would have been cast for because of the secret ballot system being operated in Ghana.

The appellant stated that assuming the people in the queue had cast their votes in favour of the respondent, there was no way that number of votes would have offset the difference won by Dr Yakubu.