Great uncertainties hang over the February 20 Wulensi constituency elections. Whereas the Electoral Commission has declared its intention to conduct the election, the MP’s party the NDC seems to suggest that the constituency is not vacant.
That the Honourable Mr. Nyimakan is still qualified to represent the constituency. In fact, the Rt. Hon. Speaker, Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey says he has not declared the seat vacant.
In a letter to Minority Leader, Alban Bagbin (MP) dated February 4 2003 and copied the Electoral Commissioner and the Attorney General, The Right Honourable Mr. Ala Adjetey said, “I have not declared a vacancy in the Wulensi Constituency as I am required to do under Standing Order 18 of the Standing Orders of Parliament.”
The Supreme Court had declared Mr. Samuel Nyimakan’s election null and void following the petition of one Fuseini Zakaria, a Wulensi constituent to a Tamale High Court, praying it to declare the elections of Mr. Nyimakan null and void. The petitioner alleged that Mr. Nyimakan does not hail from the constituency, is not resident in the constituency; and has never lived there for periods that add up to 5 years in the last 10 years.
In his letter to the Speaker, Mr. Bagbin himself a lawyer, contended that there is no vacancy in the Wulensi Constituency because an application for review of the decision by which the vacancy was created is pending before the Supreme Court. Though Mr. Ala Adjetey, one of Ghana’s finest legal brains sympathized with his submission, he was not sure whether the minority leader was right in the view he has taken concerning the legal effect of the pendency of an application for review.
“My understanding of the law on this matter is that an application for review cannot, by and of itself, nullify the decision it seeks to have reviewed, which remains valid until set aside by an order of a court of competent jurisdiction,” he said. According to him, “depending upon what interim processes are filed, the execution of such an order or decision may or may not be stayed but that is a far cry from the contention that the decision itself has become void or ceased to exist.”
Bagbin had noted in his letter that Parliament, as a body was not aware of any communication from the Speaker to the Electoral Commission on the existence of a vacancy in the Wulensi Constituency and called on Mr. Adjetey to “clear the air.” Meanwhile, the Speaker has explained that he has not written to the EC on the matter beyond what the Clerk of Parliament has done in discharge of his constitutional obligation in the matter.
Source: GhanaWeb
