NPP calls for truce in Korle Klottey

Parties in the suit filed against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) over the Korle Klottey parliamentary primary by Philip Addison, lead counsel for the NPP in the 2013 presidential election petition, have agreed on an out-of-court settlement.

Mr Addison and Nii Adjei Tawiah dragged the party to the Accra High Court demanding the annulment of the August 2 polls which elected Valentino Nii Noi as the parliamentary candidate of the constituency.

According to the plaintiffs, more than half of the delegates were disenfranchised and the organisation of the election was in violation of the tenets of democratic principles that were supposed to govern the election.

They claim there was no accreditation and that the register used was also not certified.

The election, the plaintiffs said, violated article 55 of the NPP’s constitution and the voters’ register used for the conduct of the election was not the one certified by the Korle Klottey Parliamentary Elections Committee for the conduct of the election.

At the hearing in the court presided over by Justice Patience Mills Tetteh yesterday, Opoku Adusei, lawyer for the NPP, said the parties had agreed on an out-of-court settlement.

Earlier, the lawyer had moved a motion to set aside a default judgement in favour of the plaintiffs who sought to annul the election.

The trial judge accordingly granted the request of the parties and adjourned hearing until December 16, by which time the parties would have arrived at an amicable settlement.

Prof Mike Oquaye also represented the party while Frank Davis appeared for Mr Addison.

According to the writ, the rules and regulations required the Parliamentary Elections Committee to receive and keep the constituency register until same was submitted to the Electoral Commission.

The plaintiffs allege that the duly certified register was inspected by all the aspirants and same was kept by the Parliamentary Elections Committee Secretary, adding that this was never made available to the Electoral Commission because the 2nd day of August, 2015 was not the agreed date for the conduct of the polls.

In the view of the plaintiffs, the persons who organised the August 2, 2015 election procured a totally different voters’ register for use on that day.

This infraction, the complainants said, gave the opportunity to persons whose names were not on the duly certified voters’ register to cast their ballots.

In July, an Accra High Court presided over by Justice K.A. Ofori Atta threw out a motion for injunction brought against the election over an allegation of fraud.

To the plaintiffs, Nii Noi acted fraudulently when he declared and submitted to the NPP, as part of his forms for adoption as the party’s parliamentary candidate for the 2016 general elections, that he held a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Political Science Degree (2nd class upper division) awarded by the University of Ghana.