Hohoe Election Petition: Judge fumes over continuous absence of EC's lawyer

The High Court judge presiding over the petition challenging the outcome of the 2020 Hohoe Constituency parliamentary elections, His Lordship Justice Owoahene Acheampong, reportedly expressed his displeasure over the continuous absence of the lawyer for the Electoral Commission of Ghana, the first respondent in the case.

According to Franklin Cudjoe, the founder and president of IMANI Africa, the newly appointed lawyer for the EC, Philip Jimanor, was not present during court proceedings on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, which infuriated Justice Owoahene Acheampong.

Cudjoe, in a post shared on Facebook on June 18, 2024, stated that the judge could not comprehend why the EC’s lawyers keep absenting themselves from proceedings, because its previous lawyer, Sekyi-Boampong, was also always absent.

“At the High Court in Ho on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, His Lordship Justice Owoahene Acheampong expressed his displeasure at the absence of the lawyer for the Electoral Commission, Justin Amenuvor, in court.

“The judge referred to a previous occasion when he had similarly commented on the absence of the previous lawyer for the EC, Mr. Sekyi-Boampong. He could not understand why lawyers for the EC would not be in court and why no representative of such a state institution would be present either,” he wrote.

During proceedings on Tuesday, the court heard an application by the lawyer for the petitioners, Philip Jimanor, for leave to file amended replies to answers filed by both the Electoral Commission and the second respondent in the petition, John Peter Amewu, the Member of Parliament for Hohoe and Minister for Railway Development.

Peter Amewu’s lawyer, Benedict Kofitse, was, however, in court and did not oppose the application.

The judge granted the application and adjourned the case to Thursday, June 20, 2024.

The case, initiated by Prof. Margaret Kweku, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for the 2020 election and four others, challenges the declaration of Amewu as the winner, citing the disenfranchisement of approximately 17,000 voters from the Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi, and Likpe (SALL) traditional areas.

Read Franklin Cudjoe's post below:

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