Accra, July 19, GNA – Some members of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) who had gathered in the forecourt of the Trades Union Congress in Accra on Tuesday morning to be conveyed to Ada-Foah for a Regional Council meeting of the Union returned home disappointed.

This followed an interim injunction filed by the Chairman of the Teshie Branch of the Union, Mr Isaac Ahumah at an Accra Court, restraining the Greater Accra Regional Executives of the GPRTU from holding elections to select officers for a four-year tenure.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, the Chairman of the Accra New-Town Branch of the GPRTU, Mr Samuel Kofi Atitsogbui, said the Regional Executives of the Union planned to hold the elections, which was opposed by some of the Branches because certain procedures to be followed before the elections had not been complied with.

He stated that under Article 16 of the GPRTU constitution promulgated in 2007, before the holding of the Regional elections an audit of the Regional Secretariat conducted by the Ghana Audit Service had to be submitted, discussed and approved by representatives of the 250 Branches at a Regional Council meeting under the supervision of the National Secretariat.

Mr Atitsogbui said this had not been done, adding that accounts of the Regional Secretariat which should be audited annually, and the report discussed under the supervision of the National Secretariat had also not been complied with.

He said this had prompted some Branches to institute legal action against the Regional Secretariat restraining it from holding the elections because it had not followed the laid down regulations.

According to the Accra New-Town Branch Chairman, the accounts of the Regional Secretariat for 2009 and 2010 had not been discussed and approved but Regional elections were scheduled for Tuesday, which he described as “An abuse of the regulations”.

Mr Atitsogbui said they petitioned the National Electoral Commission and the National Secretariat, and that the National Chairman had promised to go into the matter only to be told last week that elections were to be held today, Tuesday July 19, 2011.

He said this prompted the filing of an interim injunction by the Teshie Branch Chairman, restraining the Regional Executives from holding the elections. The writ was to be served on the Regional Chairman, Regional Vice Chairman, the First and Second Trustees and the Regional Industrial Relations Officer.

Speaking on a radio programme in Accra on Monday, Mr Ahumah said they were given only four days’ notice to the elections but Alhaji A. Tetteh, Regional Chairman since 1991, and also the National Vice Chairman, said the date for the polls was fixed by the National Secretariat.

Alhaji Tetteh said the 2009 audit report was ready and that it was to be distributed at the Regional Council meeting today, Tuesday, while that for 2010 was yet to be completed.