Supreme Court of Ghana

The Tamale High court, presided over by Justice Lawrence Mensah, has thrown out a writ of summons brought against Mr. Alhassan Dahamani and the Electoral Commission, seeking to disqualify his candidature for the Tamale North seat.

The court, subsequently ordered the plaintiff, Alhaji Abukari Sumani, to pay GHc500.00 to the defendant as cost for damages, and asked him (plaintiff) to file a petition since the parliamentary election was over.

The plaintiff, who is also the immediate past MP for the Tamale North, on 2 November, 2012, brought a case against the defendant, alleging that he could not be a candidate for the area since he was not a resident, contrary to the representation of people’s law PNDC Law 284.

He argued that under the law, the defendant was supposed to have resided in the constituency “for an aggregate of five years” in order to qualify as a parliamentary candidate, stressing that the defendant had never resided in the area in his entire life.

Alhaji Abukari Sumani lost the Tamale North seat securing 10,885 behind the winner Alhassan Dahamani.