A native of Amenfi Central in the Western Region, Gyedu Frimpong, has petitioned the Electoral Commission (EC) to reject the nomination forms of Joana Cudjoe Gyan of the National Democratic Congress.

The petition follows an injunction by the High Court in Takoradi restraining the EC from accepting Mrs Gyan's nomination.

The injunction has not been set aside.

"We wish to make the point that by virtue of an injunction order granted against her by the High Court in Suit Number E112/36/24 Gyedu Frimpong and 4 others v Joana Cudjoe Gyan and 2 others, the acceptance of her nomination form by the EC will clearly amount to contempt of court in the pending suit,” the petition stated.

Petition details

The petition said Mrs Cudjoe contested the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary primaries to be elected as the parliamentary candidate for the Amenfi Central constituency.

It said however that as a prerequisite for qualification for national primary elections, Mrs Cudjoe had to be a bearer of a national voters’ identification card.

“In the purview of paragraph 2 of this petition, Mrs Cudjoe was mandatorily required to indorse her voters’ identification number to complete the Amenfi Constituency nomination forms and also present a copy of same to the regional executives,” it said.

It continued that the Voters’ ID presented by Mrs Cudjoe bore 11 digits contrary to the standardised 10 that every valid voters’ ID card was composed of, as required under the Public Election’s Regulations.

The petition said Mrs Cudjoe had two different voters ID numbers on the membership ID card she used to complete her nomination forms (i.e. 67610125841 and 67610125891); “The voter ID number given to Joana Cudjoe is the voter ID for Seidu Bala (6761012589) and one digit was added to the number (1).

The petitioner alleged that findings made by the Amenfi and Bantama constituencies of the NDC, along with other supporting documents led to the conclusion that Madam Joana Cudjoe’s voter ID card number was not genuine and that she was ineligible in the first place, for the NDC primaries as an aspirant.