The High court in Tamale has dismissed a parliamentary election petition brought against the Member of Parliament for the Savelugu constituency by the New Patriotic Party parliamentary candidate for the area, Mohammed Abdul Somed Gunu.
After the Electoral Commission declared NDC’s Abdul Jacob Iddrisu as the winner of the polls in the constituency in the 2020 general election. The NPP parliamentary candidate filed a petition to protest the results.
The Petitioner claimed that the election which saw the MP emerging as the winner was fraught with malpractices, irregularities, over voting among others, and thus prayed the court to annul the results.
However, in its ruling on Friday, January 20, 2023, the Tamale High Court, presided over by Justice Daniel Obeng, ruled that the allegations raised by the petitioner were just administrative errors and did not affect the outcome of the elections, hence the declaration of the results by the Electoral Commission was valid.
The court has therefore ordered the petitioner to pay an amount of GH¢40,000 and GH¢20,000 to the elected Member of Parliament and the Electoral Commission respectively.
Mohammed Abdul Salam who is the representative of the 2nd respondent, Abdul Jacob Iddrisu said “the judge admitted that there were administrative errors which he says did not affect the outcome of the election. We are certain that there was a criminal case. The NPP and the lawyers will pursue another criminal case.”
The Deputy General Secretary of the NPP also said “this ruling does not affect Parliament in any way.”
In a related development, a petition filed by the Zabzugu NDC 2020 parliamentary candidate Umar Alhassan against the elected Member of Parliament, John Bennam Jabaah of the constituency after he was declared winner of the 2020 parliamentary elections has also been dismissed by the court.
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