Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah, the Essikado-Ketan Constituency parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 polls, has pulled out of her case against Joe Ghartey, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the same constituency.
Her decision was because of disappointment and frustration, especially as the case, which has dragged on for close to two years, with no end in sight, continued to drain her time and commitment towards rejuvenating the party at the constituency level.
Dr Ayensu-Danquah, who is an American-trained Burn Reconstructive Surgeon, has also debunked suggestion she was fined for pulling out of the case and stated counsel for the plaintiffs demanded GH¢500,000 but the Judge, Justice Richmond Osei Hwere, declined the request.
Instead handed them (the first and second respondents, that is. the Electoral Commission (EC) and Mr Ghartey the initial GH¢20,000 deposited to settle administrative fees.
In Dr Ayensu-Danquah’s petition to the Sekondi High Court, cited several infractions during the coalition of votes which changed the figures in favour of the incumbent MP, Mr Ghartey and averred that illegality resulted in the EC declaring results based on Mr Ghartey’s own pink sheets, which gave him 26,701 valid votes compared to hers, when she polled 24,527, while Frank Cobbinah, the parliamentary candidate for Ghana Union Movement’s (GUM), garnered just 629 votes.
The petitioner however insisted that her “own collated results from the figures declared after counting at polling stations were the first respondent obtained 26,299 valid votes while the petitioner had 26,336 valid votes, making the petitioner the obvious winner, but EC declared otherwise”.
But Dr Ayensu-Danquah, in her termination plea before the court raised a number of concerns that to date she and her lawyer, Daniel Ametepe, had complied fully with all orders of the High Court and have pursued the matter with utmost zeal and diligence but EC had not yet complied with pre-trail orders of the court by the failure to file his witness statement and pre-trial checklist.
She said 20 months after she first filed the action, a lot of water had gone under the bridge and upon serious reflection and consultation decided to let go and rather help her party focus on future reorganisation as Election 2024 was not too far away.
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