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Supreme Court throws out Nii Armah Ashietey's review application

Supreme Court throws out Nii Armah Ashietey's review application

The Supreme Court has struck out a review application filed by Nii Armah Ashietey challenging the court's decision to suspend a suit against Dr Zanetor Rawlings.

Nii Ashietey is challenging the legality of the selection of Dr Rawlings as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary nominee for Klottey Korle.

When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck it out after counsel for Nii Ashietey, Mr Gary Nimako prayed the court that he wants to withdraw the review application.

The court last month suspended the suit challenging the nomination of Dr Zanetor Rawlings to lead the NDC’s parliamentary bid in Klottey Korle which was pending at the High Court until it determined an adjunct constitutional matter.

In a 4-1 majority decision, the court ruled that the High Court erred in law when it assumed jurisdiction over Article 94 clause 1(a) of the 1992 Constitution, which states that a person must be a registered voter before he or she can contest as a Member of Parliament.

Nii Ashietey therefore filed the review application claiming that the Supreme Court's decision to suspend the suit at the High Court did not take into consideration the NDC constitution and therefore there was a miscarriage of justice.

Graphic Online's Emmannuel Ebo Hawkson who was in court on Wednesday reported that the review panel made up of seven justices asked Mr Nimako to prove how the decision led to a miscarriage of justice.

However, Mr Nimako could not prove his case and finally informed the court that he wants to withdraw the review application/

Nii Ashietey, who is the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for the Klottey Korle constituency failed in his bid to seek re-nomination from the NDC as he was beaten by Dr Zanetor Rawlings, daughter of former President Jerry Rawlings at the primary in November 2015.

He subsequently went to court to challenge Dr Rawlings' eligibility arguing that she was not a registered voter at the time she won the NDC nomination.

Dr Rawlings took advantage of the Electoral Commission's recent limited voter registration exercise to register as a voter and subsequently applied to the Supreme Court, arguing that the High Court had no jurisdiction over the case.

The Supreme Court ordered for the suit to be discontinued at the High Court for it to determine the constitutional issue on who qualifies to contest as an MP with regards to being a registered voter.

The issue at stake is whether the law applies at a time a person is nominated by his party, or declares an intention or at a time the person files with the EC to contest as a candidate, which the the Supreme Court is yet to rule on.

But whilst waiting, Nii Ashietey filed the review application which was subsequently struck out on Wednesday.

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