Accra: Zanetor wants High Court judge removed from hearing her case

Lawyers for National Democratic Congress parliamentary nominee for Klottey Korle, Dr Zanetor Rawlings wants the Supreme Court to bar High Court judge Ackah-Boafo from hearing a case concerning her candidature. According to Dr Zanetor's lawyer, Godwin Tamakloe, the judge erred in law when he wrongly assumed jurisdiction to interpret Article 94(1)(a) of the Constitution. The function of interpretation of the Constitution is a Supreme Court responsibility that should not have been exercised by the High Court judge, the lawyers say.

 The judge had ruled that once Dr. Zanetor had put herself up as a contestant, she was caught by Article 94(1)(a) which required that she must be a registered voter at the time of her participation in the parliamentary primaries last November.

Nii Armah Ashietey, the incumbent Member of Parliament who lost to Dr. Rawlings last year had gone to court challenging Zanetor's victory on November 11, 2015, primaries citing constitutional breaches.

According to Mr. Ashietey, Dr. Zanetor Rawlings did not qualify to be elected as the parliamentary nominee since at the time of the contest she was not a registered voter in the country. Dr. Rawlings is, therefore, seeking a restraining order to stop the trial judge from hearing the case at a High Court.

She runs to the Supreme court because the High Court had on two occasions dismissed their application for the case to be thrown out and on the second occasion awarded cost against them. But running to the defence of the High Court judge, counsel for Nii Armah Ashitey, Gary Nimako said the judge did no wrong in its ruling.

The lawyer has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the application by Dr. Zanetor. To him, it was just another ploy to waste the court's time.