After an Accra High Court threw out an election petition filed by Ras Caleb Appiah Levi, Greater Accra Regional Chairman of MUSIGA and Presidential aspirant, Ras raised other concerns regarding the election and the administration of the union.
In a letter written to the leadership of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) by Ras Caleb-Appiah’s lawyers, he is seeking that the National Election Committee be rightly constituted.
“The legality of the National Elections Committee as presently constituted. Contrary to the requirement of Article 11 of the 2018 revised constitution of MUSIGA that the National Elections Committee be composed of a representative from each Region and three NEC members, the National Election Committee, as presently constituted, falls short of this requirement. Being a constitutional injunction, we wish to draw your attention to same for it to be rectified and the National Elections Committer properly constituted,” the letter states.
He is also suggesting that per the constitution, both the National and regional elections be held at the same time.
“That the National and Regional elections be held on the same day. One of the novel provisions of the 2018 revised constitution was to open up the right to vote in the National elections to all paid-up card bearing members, and to hold both the National and Regional elections on the same day,” it further reads.
According to him, this arrangement was put in place along with the thinking behind Presidential and Parliamentary elections held in the Republic of Ghana, for the term of office of the National officers to run concurrently with the term of office of the Regional officers, whiles saving money for the Union by reducing the cost of running the elections.
He said without recourse to a change in the constitution occasioned by a constitutional amendment or review, the processes leading to the holding of the election for National Executives only, without a concurrent election for Regional Executives as stipulated by Article 11 of the MUSIGA constitution, can at best be described as a constitutional infraction. The election of National and Regional Executives must be held concurrently in accordance with the provisions of the MUSIGA constitution.
Ras Caleb is also requesting, among other things, that the mandate of the National Executive Council reviews the ‘mandate given to the Acting National Executive.
According to them, the NEC gave the Acting National Executives a specific mandate to take steps to resolve the court case instituted in 2019 and to organize elections the same year, and definitely before the biennial national conference which was scheduled for October 2020.
“It is the understanding of my client that the said mandate has lapsed, as neither the settlement, election nor the 2020 conference took place. It is, thus. necessary for NEC to review the mandate of the Acting Executives since the Acting Executives have failed to fulfill their specific mandate,” the lawyer noted.
MUSIGA Election
The election of the Union has been on hold for several months as the embattled executive has been in court over issues regarding irregularities in the voter’s register.
An Accra High Court placed an interim injunction on the national elections by the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) to elect its national executives in 2019.
The interim injunction followed a suit filed by one of the union’s presidential aspirants, who claimed that the guidelines for the conduct of the elections introduced by the union and its election committee were against the constitution of the union.
Meanwhile, a date for the election is yet to be set.
Read the letter below:
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By: ghanaweekend.com
