A district magistrate court in Agona Swedru has issued an injunction against Cynthia Morrison, preventing her from running as an independent parliamentary candidate for Agona West in the Central Region.
Morrison, who won the seat for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2016 and 2020, decided to run independently after alleging that her party had schemed to undermine her in the internal primaries.
The plaintiffs are arguing Cynthia Morrison of not being a resident of Agona West but Agona East and therefore not eligible to contest the seat. The plaintiffs are Emmanuel Addison, Solomon Nyarko and Harrison A. Aglago, who are all National Democratic Congress (NDC) Branch Executive in the Agona West Constituency.
The court’s order stipulates that she cannot present herself as a parliamentary candidate until the case is “fully determined.” With the 2024 election less than two months away, there are concerns that the ruling could delay the case until after the election, resulting in significant losses in campaign time for Morrison.
Three months ago, she announced her independent candidacy after losing in the NPP’s parliamentary primary, where she received 152 votes compared to Christopher Arthur’s 240.
Despite her defeat, Morrison has expressed that her commitment to developing Agona West motivated her decision to contest independently in the upcoming election.
Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni commented on the ruling in a post on the X platform, questioning the fairness of the decision.
He noted, “I’m not a lawyer, but I think there is a question of the fairness of this ruling. Why doesn’t the court allow the ‘VAR system’ of justice in this case, which is typical of candidates contesting elections in Ghana?”
“If the offense is so grave as to warrant her disqualification from the race, the court can declare her election null and void, as has happened in many cases. If she’s stopped from contesting the election and she wins the case, can the court reverse the damage?
“Cynthia Morrison has been a minister of state in this government and is currently the sitting Member of Parliament for Agona West. If these precedents are set, will they not open the floodgates for anybody to file an injunction on winnable candidates a few months before an election just to change the will of the people? This does not look good for our democracy, especially because Cynthia Morrison has constantly spoken of how the governing NPP has schemed against her candidature, which is why she decided to contest as an independent candidate.”