An election petition that sought to nullify the results of last year’s primary of the New Patriotic Party for the Manso Nkwanta constituency in the Ashanti Region has been dismissed.

The Member of Parliament for the constituency, Mrs Grace Addo had prayed the Kumasi High Court to annul the results of the primary, which she lost by a marginal one vote, citing fraud as her grounds She had prayed the court to order for a new election to be conducted in the constituency but the court presided over by Justice Beresford Acquah declined to grant her the reliefs because she failed to adduce enough evidence to support the grounds of fraud.

Mrs Addo lost the June 13, 2015 constituency primary to her contender, Joseph Albert Quarm by just a vote. She secured 215 votes while Mr Quarm had 216 votes. The MP consequently filed an election petition against the Electoral Commission, the New Patriotic Party and Mr Quarm at the High Court on December 7, 2015 to challenge the results of the primary.

But after a year-and-a-half of courtroom proceedings, the court on Friday dismissed the petition and awarded a cost of GHC33,000 against Mrs Addo. Of the amount, GHC13,000 is to be given to the EC and GHC10,000 each to the NPP and Mr Quarm.

The court held the agents of Mrs Addo signed the electoral results form after the results of the primary were declared by the Electoral Commission, adding she (Mrs Addo) went ahead to congratulate Mr Quarm as the winner. That, the court held, proves that the incumbent MP (Mrs Addo) affirmed and recognised the results of the June 2015 primary.

“The case of the plaintiff was weak,” Justice Acquah stated, as he dismissed the petition. The candidate elect, Mr Quarm promised to work with the incumbent MP to retain the seat for the NPP.”The legal tussle is over it is time to push the agenda of our flag-bearer,” he added.

Counsel for the New Patriotic Party, Ohene Amankwaa Gyan, described the judgement as a victory for the party, saying “This was an intra – party matter and it’s victory for democracy. “The party expect the factions to come together,” he added. By William Evans-Nkum|TV3|3news.com|Ghana