Court Won't Grant Injunction To Stop Appointment of New EC Boss - Lawyer

A private legal practitioner, Bernard Owiredu Donkor has said the Supreme Court will not, under any circumstance, grant an interlocutory injunction to restrain President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo from appointing a new Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC).

The lawyer who was speaking to Daakyehene Ofosu Agyemang on Accra-based Power 97.9 FM Wednesday night said the president has been mandated by the constitution to appoint a commissioner to head the Electoral Commission so any injunction to stop the exercise will be in futility.

Lawyer Donkor's comments come at a time a citizen of Ghana, Fafali Nyonator filed a suit for an interlocutory injunction at the Supreme Court to stop the president from appointing a new EC boss to succeed Mrs Charlotte Osei who was fired in June after some EC staff petitioned president in 2017 to remove her from office.

The Committee tasked to investigate allegations levelled against Mrs Osei recommended her removal together with her two deputies on the basis of stated misbehavior and incompetence, pursuant to Article 146 (1) of the Constitution.

Charlotte Osei
Despite coming under intense criticisms from some Ghanaians especially the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), President Akufo-Addo is likely to appoint a new chairperson before the end of July.

Suit
In Ms Nyonator's suit, she is praying the apex court to declare that the Chief Justice’s determination of a prima facie case pursuant to Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution for the removal of Mrs Osei usurped the exclusive original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

But Lawyer Donkor says: "In law, what Fafali is seeking is impossible and is as difficult as a camel passing through the eye of a needle."

"It [injunction]will never happen...It is not law and has never been supported by any previous legal decisions of our courts," he stated, explaining that injunction exists an equitable relief but not to interfere with an exercise that is enshrined in the constitution.

He said the president will be acting within the confines of the constitution if he appoints a new commissioner to head the EC, therefore the injunction being sought might be thrown out, adding that it will be difficult for the laws to interfere with something the constitution affirms.