Supreme Court strikes out joinder application

The Supreme Court (SC) by a unanimous decision struck out the joinder application filed by 400 applicants seeking to be joined Presidential election petition.

Mr Justice William Atuguba, President of the nine-member panel giving the ruling said the interest of the voters seeking to join the petition can be taken care of by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who has already been joined to the matter.

He said the joinder application being sought for the applicants was without value given the nature of the case before the court.

He said claim by the applicants that they are a necessary party to the petition cannot be sustained since their concerns could equally be addressed by the second and third respondents in the case.

Mr Kombla Senanu, Counsel for Applicants earlier in his submission argued that the application by the applicants to join the petition was in pursuant of C.I 60(1) of the rules of court.

He said the applicants are a necessary and interested party to the petition because they have the right to protect their votes in the 11,790 polling stations, which the petitioners has called for it to be annulled.

He said every citizen who voted on the Election Day has a sovereign right to join the petition and ensure that his rights are protected.

Mr Philip Addison, Counsel for the Petitioners moving his application in opposition to that of the applicants’ motion said the intentions of the applicants are to delay the whole election petition.

He said except the names and titles of the applicants all the 400 applications filed are the same and they are meant to delay the case.

He said the claim by the applicant that they are voters who are interested in the outcome of the petition cannot be maintained since their interest can be catered for by the NDC.

Mr Addison said the claim by the applicants that the petitioners want the court to annul their votes were not true because the annulment cut across the various polling stations and including those who voted for the petitioners.

He said the claim by the applicants that they are necessary party and should be allowed to join the petition to pursue their interest were unfounded.

He argued that if the applicants are allowed to join the petition it would open the flood gates for thousands of people to join and delay the whole election petition.

In a related development, the SC also refused an application filed by the NDC to object to the petitioner’s application for directions with respect to “further and better particulars”.

The court in its ruling said it overruled the NDC’s objection in the interest of justice to all the parties in the case.

The court said it was changing the petitioner’s application for directions to a memorandum of issues since the latter seek to achieve the same purpose as the former.

Earlier, Mr Samuel Kudzo, Counsel for NDC in his submission said the application filed by the petitioners was alien to the SC.

He said the SC should strike out the application since the petitioners seeks to make their own case, which was unknown to the rules of the court.

Mr Philip Addison, Counsel for the Petitioners in his argument said objection by the NDC to the application was without merit.

He prayed the court to look at the substance of the application of the petitioners and not the form since the lawyers for the first and second respondents have not objected to the application.

Meanwhile the SC has directed that all the parties to the petition should within seven days try to find a common ground on the various applications for directions and where they have difficulty refer the matter to the court.

Source: GNA