Wa Central Constituency Elections: Regional Appeals Committee petitioned over the eligibility of women organizer aspirant
By Erasung Tajudeen
The ambition of Saudatu Bashiru to become the next Wa Central Constituency Women Organizer for the NDC hangs in the balance as some members of the party have petitioned the Regional Appeals Committee against her eligibility.
The Wa Centtal Constituency vetting committee has dismissed the Appeal against Saudatu Bashiru and has declared her qualified or eligible to contest the upcoming constituency elections.
In the petition copied to the General Secretary, Regional Executive Committee, Wa Central Constituency executive committee among others and sighted by Homeradionews.com, the petitioners urged the Regional Appeals Committee to revisit the decision of the Vetting Committee on the clearance of madam Saudatu Bashiru and reverse the same.
The petitioners insisted that the aforementioned aspirant is not a registered voter in the Wa Central Constituency and hence could not be regarded as a branch member in good standing to contest as a women organizer for Wa Central Constituency.
The petitions is as follows; 1. This appeal is in pursuant to Section 5(1) of the Guidelines for the Conduct of NDC Constituency Elections, 2022, which grants Petitioners the right to apply to the Regional Appeals Committee if they are dissatisfied with the outcome of a vetting committee. By virtue of this proviso, we invoked the appellate jurisdiction of the Regional Appeals Committee to revisit the decision of the Vetting Committee on the clearance of madam Saudatu Bashiru and reverse same on the following grounds.
2. The Petitioners case can be gleaned from paragraphs 4 and 5 of their Petition which was submitted to the Vetting Committee for their consideration on September 29, 2022. Without being repetitive, I will like to briefly paraphrase the said paragraph in this appeal, which says, the aspirant, madam Bashiru Saudatu is not a registered voter in the Wa Central Constituency and hence could not be regarded as a branch member in good standing to contest as women organizer for Wa Central Constituency.
3. On October 3rd, 2022, the Vetting Committee delivered its verdict on this matter and granted the aspirant, madam Bashiru Saudatu the license to contest as women organizer for the Wa Central Constituency. However, the Committee did not ground their judgment on any law or judicial decision for arriving at that decision to clear Bashiru Saudatu alias Sauda J.B. Neither did they refer to any reason or even a public policy to that effect. Except to only state in their judgment that the committee was involved in broader engagement which details or outcome was never made known to us (Petitioners) or the party. Just like William Shakespeare puts it, “there is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face”. Whatever their deliberations may be as long as they were not conveyed to the public, we are not magicians to go into their minds and ascertain for ourselves the lawfulness of these deliberations. It is however unfortunate that the committee has adjudicated the case per incuriam. The very reasons the NDC party has been on the neck of the judiciary for lowering the standards of the judiciary system in the country. The question is can we be condemning this as a party in the public space but turn around to impose same on our members. We therefore averred that this will be unprincipled as well as a miscarriage of justice to the members of the party.
4. Clearly, the Vetting Committee erred in law and on facts. We thus respectfully, submit that the Vetting Committee did not follow the party’s Constitution and the guidelines for the 2022 constituency elections. If they had averted their minds to these laws and guidelines the result of their verdict would have been different. The committee rather decided to go on a frolic of their own and ruled based on their own passions and desires despite the fact that the guidelines were provided as safeguards to dispense with such cases. For instance, Section A(iii) of the Vetting Guidelines makes it plain that if an aspirant or candidate is not a registered voter in a constituency, that particular candidate shall be disqualified from participating in the said constituency executive elections. Same position of this guideline was pressed strongly on the vetting committee in paragraphs 14 and 15 of our Petition, which we did indicate that being a resident member alone without a voting right in a polling station does not qualify a member of the party to be called a branch member in good standing to contest for a position in the constituency. We therefore assert forcible that the vetting committee did not appreciate the nature of the issue before them and hence the inability to consider the legal arguments and repercussions advanced in paragraphs 6, 7, 8 and 9 of our Petition.
5. Again, the committee erred on facts because their decision failed to take into account the aspirant’s admissible evidence adduced in the hearing which the aspirant admitted that she is not a registered voter in Wa Central constituency and has not transferred her vote to the constituency either at the time of the vetting. This evidence supplied by the candidate corroborated with that of the petitioners’ attachment which showed her polling station in Yaala Primary School in Wa East Constituency yet the committee did not consider this material fact in arriving at an inform decision. If the committee had averted its mind to this statement of fact, it would not have cleared the aspirant, Madam Saudatu to contest as women organizer for Wa Central Constituency. It is trite that the law is an aggregation of common sense and at any rate it should be so. Thus, it should not be applied timorously but boldly and without fear or favor to anyone that falls a prey to it. To this effect that we can collectively appreciate the essence of law as a group or society other than that it will just be a pile of papers covered with dust in the shelves.
6. We contend vehemently that the Vetting Committee decision to clear madam Bashiru Saudatu to Contest the 2022 Constituency conference was decided per incuriam, perverse and could at best be described as a judicial error. We therefore pray the Regional Appeals Committee to set aside the decision of the vetting committee and declare the aspirant, madam Bashiru Saudatu ineligible to contest as women organizer for Wa Central Constituency. It is important to state that we still have trust in the internal dispute resolution mechanisms of the party and we are determined to exhaust all these internal remedies to ensure that this matter is dealt with appropriately. But where the internal mechanism is incapable of dealing with matter justly and fairly, we may proceed to court to seek judicial remedy. Attached is a copy of other relevant documents for your perusal.
