Zanetor Rawlings has a bad case – High Court Judge

The high court judge stated this in his ruling in an instant application put in by lawyers of Dr. Zanetor Rawlings which sought to have the case against her completely struck out.

‘’ I find the argument by Dr. Zanetor Agyeman – Rawlings’ counsel, with all due respect and utmost deference, a ‘wonderful poem which is a bad read’ because it is unsupported by the facts and the law’’.

The judge reprimanded Dr. Zanetor Rawlings and her lawyers for wasting the time of the court with vexatious applications to abuse the court process. He went on to slap her with a cost of gh2500 as a penalty for wasting the time of the court.

‘Based on my analyses, I hold the respectful view that the instant application by Dr. Zanetor Rawlings to have the case against her struck out, is not only unmeritorious but vexatious and a clear abuse of the court process and the court has no hesitation in dismissing same’, the judge declared in a ruling.

Lawyers for Dr. Zanetor Rawlings had earlier argued that she has only declared an intention to contest for parliament in 2016 by her election in November 2015 as parliamentary candidate of the NDC in Klottey Korle and will be duly registered as a voter in Ghana after the EC’s limited registration exercise later this year and therefore could not be sued for not being a registered voter.

However, this judge dismissed this argument instantly. ‘Based on the facts of this case, it would be an affront to common sense to conclude  that Dr. Zanetor Agyeman – Rawlings has only declared an intention when she has purportedly been elected to be the candidate to be presented by the NDC to the EC as its candidate for the 2016 elections’ said the judge.

He continued, ‘As far as the NDC primaries in which Dr. Zanetor Rawlings contested are concerned, she has gone beyond the declaration of intention to being elected a parliamentary candidate. Her status has radically changed vis-à-vis that election and it is that status change that the plaintiff is challenging.’

MP for Klottey Korle constituency Hon. Nii Armah Ashietey went to court on January 19 2016 to challenge the eligibility of Dr. Zanetor Rawlings to be a parliamentary candidate for the NDC’s ticket.

The writ issued by Hon. Nii Armah Ashietey seeks the following reliefs:

a.   A declaration that the decision by the NDC to allow Dr. Zanetor Rawlings to contest the parliamentary primaries in the Klottey Korle constituency on its ticket when she was not a registered voter within the meaning of Article 94(1)(a) of the 1992 constitution AT THE TIME OF THE SAID CONTEST violates the constitution and the internal regulations governing the conduct of parliamentary primaries of the NDC and same is illegal and of no effect.

b.   A declaration that Dr. Zanetor Rawlings’ election as a parliamentary candidate elect for the Klottey Korle constituency is null and void and is of no effect as same violates the constitution of the NDC and the rules governing the conduct of the 2015 parliamentary primaries.

c.  An order of the court directed at the NDC for the re-run of the parliamentary primaries in the Klottey Korle constituency between the plaintiffs in accordance with its constitution and the regulations governing the conduct of the 2015 parliamentary primaries within one week of the annulment of Dr. Zanetor’s election

d.      Any other Order(s) as the court may deem it

e.      Cost including legal fees

Next  hearing of the case has been scheduled for April 4 2016 at 11: 00 am