Law School SRC election in limbo; hit by injunction

The Student Representative Council (SRC) elections of the Ghana School of Law has been hit by an injunction following the disqualification of one of the SRC Presidential Aspirant, Mr. James Afedo.

Mr. Afedo is at the Supreme Court of the SRC challenging the decision of the SRC Electoral Commission and its Vetting Committee to disallow him from contesting in the election – a situation he described as an unfair treatment being meted out to him by the EC.

Background

The SRC Election Vetting Committee seating on April 9, 2019, at the Ghana Institution of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) drew the attention of Mr. James Afedo to an alleged breach of the electoral rules. Without any formal petition before the Committee against Mr. Afedo, the Vetting Committee stated that they have taken notice of an article that he wrote days before the Vetting which he signed as SRC President Nominee.

According to the Vetting Committee, it was wrong for the aspirant to refer to himself in that article as SRC President Nominee and that amounted to campaigning while the ban on campaigning had not been lifted.

Awake News sources say that Mr. Afedo, in his response during the vetting, outrightly dismissed the allegations saying, it could not be wrong for him to refer to himself as Presidential Nominee in an article whose content was not in anyway canvassing for votes.

He added that the SRC EC itself has published a post in which it referred to all aspirants as “Presidential Nominees”. Again, Mr. Afedo made specific reference to all other candidates who also referred to themselves as SRC President Hopefuls, and Aspirants in articles, posters, and goodwill messages.

The PR Practitioner and former BBC Journalist, therefore, prayed the Committee to dismiss the allegation.

Awake News has learnt that the vetting committee rejected Mr. Afedo’s defense and stated that “they were not interested in the other candidates”.

The Electoral Commission in less than an hour after the vetting, in a letter signed by its Chairman Mr. Elijah Bonsu Turkson asked Mr. James Afedo to bring a petition before them against other aspirants whom he stated at the vetting referred to themselves in a similar manner as he did in his articles.

The EC which appeared to be resolute in their opposition against James Afedo, who many say appears to be the most experienced and qualified candidate among the rest of the aspirants, gave him the lowest score of 49% and scored each of the remaining five candidates over 70%.

The EC after receiving a response from the former Joy FM Super Morning Show producer indicating his unwillingness to petition against any candidate has served Mr. Afedo a notice that it (the EC) has obtained evidence of his breach of electoral rules hence his dismissal.