PUSAG elections lands in court

The Private University Students Association of Ghana (PUSAG) elections, held recently during the infamous 15th annual delegates congress, has landed in court. The congress in question saw the election of the National President, General Secretary, Media Relations Officer, International Relations Officer, and Women’s Commissioner of the association. A total of 291 delegates presented by 17 Private Universities were called and counted to vote by the Chief Operation Officer of PUSAG, Frank Ahobah. Delegates voted for their preferred candidates in a sequential manner when called; one after another. The same Electoral College was used to conduct the elections for all the National Portfolios being contested namely; President, General Secretary, Media Relations Officer (MRO), Women's Commissioner (WOCOM) and International Relations Director (IRD). At the end of the polls, the MRO, and IRD portfolios elections results all recorded 291 total votes cast. That of General Secretary was 292; indicating an over-voting of 1 ballots. The total votes count for the women’s commissioner surprisingly was 353, indicating an over-voting 62 ballots. The shocker was the Presidential results which recorded a total vote count of 804; indicating an over-voting of 513 ballots. One gentleman named Mathew Ziem, who was a delegate presented by the African University College of Communications (AUCC) was caught during the election, attempting to stuff the presidential ballot box with my several already tomb printed ballots in favour of the purported winner of the PUSAG Presidential Elections. He was arrested by the police and his case is currently been handled by the Kuntenase District Police Crime Office in the Ashanti Region. Article 30 (1) of the PUSAG Constitution requires the Judicial Committee of PUSAG headed Chief Justice of PUSAG, Abu Ampong to be available at congress to be served with a petition challenging the election results if aggrieved by same within three hours (3) of the election results declaration. A further obligation is put on the Chief Justice of PUSAG in Article 30 (2) of the PUSAG Constitution, to come out with a ruling within 2 hours of the service of the election petition. The only duty placed on the Chief Justice of PUSAG during the congress is to be present at senate meetings to meet the constitutional requirement of quorum and to be available for at least three (3) hours after the declaration of election results in the event of an elections petitions. It is worthy of note that the Chief Justice of PUSAG; Abu Ampong, who was all over the election room, interfering with the election process, was nowhere to be found for the service of a petition by the aggrieved Presidential and Women’s Commissioner candidates after the declaration of results by the EC with his phone turned off. The aggrieved parties had no other choice than to serve the Chief Justice of PUSAG with copies of the petition via WhatsApp. He is yet to acknowledge receipt nor convene the hearing to adjudicate the matter although the WhatsApp messenger indicates that he has received the petition. A copy of the said petition has also been posted on the PUSAG Senators WhatsApp platform. The 15th Annual Delegates’ Congress of PUSAG whose organization was led by Alhassan Shamsu, the incumbent PUSAG president, will go down memory lane as the most disorganized and fraudulent. The affected parties of the gross irregularities of over-voting for the Presidential and Women’s Commissioner Election have commenced Legal Action to seek an order for a fresh election to be organized since the Judicial Committee of PUSAG has failed the association on their PUSAG Constitutional mandate.