Court dismisses Sam George's case against EC
The High Court in Tema High Court has dismissed the case the Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Mr Sam Nartey George filed against the Electoral Commission (EC).
Mr George had applied to the court, seeking to restrain the EC from hosting a workshop on the new voters’ register at the Escape Hotel in Prampram.
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His argument was that the EC would be breaching the ban against public and social gatherings if it was allowed to host the said meeting.
The court imposed an interim injunction to restrain the EC from hosting the meeting which was to take place from April 24 to 29, 2020.
Mr George filed his case on April 24, 2020, and as of Thursday, May 28, 2020, he had not filed the Statement of Case
To that end, the court went ahead and struck out the case and awarded cost of GH¢6000 against the applicant.
The decision of the High Court was motivated by order 55, rule 6 (2 and 3) of the High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2004 (CI 47).
The order says, “[2] within 14 days after filing the Notice of application, the applicant shall file such number of copies of the applicant’s statement of case as the Registrar shall determine setting out fully his arguments and relevant statutes or decided cases he wishes the Court to consider”.
[3] “If the applicant does not file a statement of case within the time stipulated in subrule 2, the Registrar shall certify that fact to the Court which may dismiss the application for non-prosecution or make such other order as it may consider appropriate”.
When the case was called in court on Thursday, May 28, 2020, the applicant and his lawyers were absent.
The lawyer for the Electoral Commission then argued that the applicants have failed to comply with the provisions of order 55, rule 6 (2 and 3) of the High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2004 (CI 47), in that they have not filed a Statement of Case to allow the EC to respond same.
He. therefore argued for the case to be struck out.
Related article: Group condemns Sam George for attempting to disrupt EC meeting