The Kumasi High Court 5 on Thursday, 27th April 2022,  struck out the findings of the Arbitration Committee (Regional Council of Elders).

It will be recalled that on Tuesday, 12th April, 2022, the High Court 5 referred a case filed by 11 aggrieved members of the New Patriotic Party in Atwima Kwanwoma Constituency against the Polling Station and Electoral Area Committee to the Regional Council of Elders for arbitration.

This was after the counsel for the defendants, Lawyer Kwame Adom-Appiah failed to oppose the motion filed by Hon. Prince Karikari (DCE and Chairman of the elections committee) praying the court for an out of court settlement.

The Council of Elders in their report stated that the petitioners did not exhaust the party structures for a redress of their grievances. This report was signed by only the defendants.

Counsels for the petitioners, however, drew the attention of the court to two major errors the arbitration committee committed. These were:

1. Terms of settlement of the petition were not duly followed
2. The report was not filed with the court registrar

Following this anomaly, counsel for the petitioners prayed the honourable court to strike out the committee's findings which were duly granted by the presiding judge.

6th May 2022 was set as a date to open the motion filed by Hon. Prince Karikari to set aside the writ of the petitioners.

The court made it clear that, pending the opening of Hon. Karikari's motion, no election or any election-related activity can be conducted in the Atwima Kwanwoma Constituency until finality is brought to Hon. Karikari's motion.