SAMUEL KWESI ANDERSON v. THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION & OTHERS

Irene Charity Larbi (Mrs) J.A.

(1) This Appeal emanates from the judgment of the High Court, Sekondi dated 27th October, 2016 which dismissed the Plaintiff’s case in its entirety.

(2) The Plaintiff by a Writ filed on August, 2015 sought the following reliefs:

a) An order declearing the disqualification of the Plaintiff from contesting the District Assembly Election for Assembly man for West Tanokrom Electoral Area 2015 as wrongful, illegal and unconstitutional.

b) An order compelling the Defendants to permit the Plaintiff to participate by contesting the District Assembly Election to be held on the 1st September, 2015 or in the alternative an order to suspend the election unless the Plaintiff is made one of the candidates to contest for the Assembly man of West Tanokrom Electoral Area of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly.

c) Perpetual injunction restraining the Defendant from conducting the District Assembly Elections in the West Tanokrom Electoral Area of Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly without the candidature of the Plaintiff.

The Plaintiff describes himself as an accounting officer and an immediate past Assembly man of the West Tanokrom Electoral Area of Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly. He avers that he is also a registered voter with voter ID Card No.7082033771. The Plaintiff pleaded that the 1st Defendant is a body established by the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, charged inter alia to conduct and supervise all public elections and referenda including the District Assembly elections whilst the 2nd and 3rd Defendants are the Regional and District representatives respectively of the 1st Defendant body.

(3) The Plaintiff avers further that the 1st Defendant in exercise of its powers and functions under the Constitution in carrying out District Election nationwide, invited nomination of persons interested to contest in the Election to submit nomination papers of which the 6th and 7th August, 2015 were fixed as deadline.

(4) The Plaintiff therefore filed his nomination forms and submitted same to the 3rd Defendant for transmission to the 1st Defendant through the 2nd Defendant on Monday, the 6th July, 2015. After submission of his Forms, he embarked on a campaign throughout the Electoral area for the election. Previous to this election, the 1st Defendant had planned to conduct the elections on the 3rd March, 2015 and similarly collected Forms from interested persons but the election was called off nationwide following