A private legal practitioner has argued that the Electoral Commission (EC) overstepped its legal boundaries by using an interlocutory injunction as grounds to disqualify Joana Cudjoe, the NDC’s Amenfi Central parliamentary candidate.
According to Samson Lardy Anyenini, an injunction is a temporary order and does not have the legal weight to disqualify a candidate without a final court ruling.
Speaking on PM Express, Anyenini explained that interlocutory injunctions are provisional measures that do not settle the underlying legal dispute.
“An interlocutory injunction is not a perpetual injunction, and it does not determine the rights of the parties involved. So, to use that as the basis for disqualification is not only premature but also legally flawed,” he said.
He further explained that the EC’s decision appears even more questionable given that the original May 2023 election, which was the subject of the injunction, had been annulled by the NDC.
A new election was held in September 2024, which the EC itself supervised.
“The Electoral Commission supervised the September 2024 election and declared Joana Cudjoe duly elected.
So, it’s baffling that they would later disqualify her based on an injunction tied to the annulled May election,” Anyenini noted.
He stressed that the EC should have understood that the injunction applied to an election that no longer had legal standing.
“The injunction relates to the May 2023 election. There’s no suit regarding the September 2024 election. It sounds absurd that the EC would disqualify her based on an issue that has already been settled through a fresh election,” he said.
According to Anyenini, the EC’s actions could be seen as “unlawful conduct” and an “overreach” of its authority.
He suggested that the Commission might have been in a rush to issue the disqualification order without properly considering the legal implications.
“It appears the EC was in a hurry and failed to consider the fact that the injunction was tied to an annulled election,” he pointed out.
Anyenini also warned of the potential consequences if the injunction is vacated, which could render the disqualification baseless.
“Suppose the injunction is vacated tomorrow—what happens to the EC’s disqualification then? It simply shows that the EC jumped the gun,” he concluded.
