In a unanimous 5-0 decision in favour of the Petitioners, who in this case, were the EC for the Natural Resources Faculty, Mr. Douglas Tatra and Prince Ofori Darkwa, a candidate for the Ayeduase Constituency in the 2013 KNUST Non-Residential Elections, the KNUST SRC COURT on 27/04/13 ordered the SRC EC to go add the Results submitted by the NATSU EC to the Total Non-Re Results in which One Mr. Isaac Owusu Boadi had 0 vote.
Releasing the verdict, the Presiding judge of the 5-member SRC JC that sat on the issue, Nana Osei, explained that the Judges had taken the unanimous decision because the evidence tendered by the First petitioner corroborated with that of the first respondent that is the SRC EC. The Presiding Judge further stated that Mr. David Donkor’s (SRC EC) counsel could not discredit the avalanche of evidence that the petitioner led in the court.
The First petitioner led by his counsel, Mr. Tony Nyarko, a final year Law student and the second petioner who filed a motion for joinder through his counsel, Lawyer Lenin, a first year law student, prayed the court to accept the NATSU POLLING STATION Results which had been annulled by the SRC EC upon detecting that the result has been altered in a way. Lawyer for the Petitioner, Mr. Tony Nyarko explained that, at the close of the Non-Re Polls on 25th April, 2013 at about 6pm, the Ballot Box with a confirmation of results from the station was dropped in the EC’S Strong Room by his client. But after an hour, he was called to answer questions about a result to which an agent in the Strong Room had raised an objection. This was a 0 vote for one Mr. Isaac O. Boadi, who ran for Campus Constituency, which had miraculously turned into 101 votes. But the NATSU EC came in with a confirmation which had been signed by three polling agents in which the Mr. Isaac O. Boadi had 0 vote. It was on the basis of this, that the SRC EC nullified the whole NATSU result claiming there had been an irregularity.
But adding his voice to that of the presidng Judge, the JC for the University Hall, who also sat on the case, stated that per the SRC Constitution, the EC was ‘responsible’ for conducting elections and could have ordered within its powers, for a re-count of the ballots instead of a direct annulment of a whole polling station result.
The counsel for the 2nd petitioner explained their reason for filing a joinder motion that, his client, Prince Ofori Darkwah has a direct stake in the election and so any judgement released by the court will affect his interest, therefore an application for joinder was moved to prevent a multiplicity of suits. The witnesses in this case, included Mr. Asiedu Frimpong, Mr. David Donkor and the Polling Agent for Mr. Prince O. Darkwah.
The case which lasted for hours even during a power blackout ended with all parties satisfied with the outcome. The EC is set to declare the final result…but myJCR KNUST can confirm from the Strong
Room the winners of the following Constituencies:
AYEDUASE: PRINCE OFORI DARKWA
BOMSO: MAWUSI A. PHILIP
CAMPUS: ABILLA UMAR FAROUK
KOTEI: ARMOO OKYNE
KENTINKRONO: OSEIT TUTU ISAAC
