Franklin Cudjoe, the founding President of IMANI Africa, has expressed dismay at the Supreme Court's use of double standards in the case of the four seats declared empty by Speaker Alban Bagbin.
Cudjoe stated in an opinion that it was startling that the Chief Justice who presided over the case today was so concerned about it but failed to demonstrate the same concern for the constituents of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi, and Likpe (SALL).
He argued that when the residents of SALL went to court to seek redress after being disenfranchised in the 2020 parliamentary election, the Supreme Court failed to deal with the problem in the same way that it dealt with the issue of MPs whose seats were declared vacant by Speaker Alban Bagbin. "And yet, when my SALL people were deliberately disenfranchised and we ran to the same Supreme Court for protection, it did not offer this level of comfort it so lavishly and without shame displayed today towards other constituencies. "We had gone to the Supreme Court to expeditiously protect our rights that had been violated and had the highest risk of being violated for the duration of the existing Parliament." Franklin Cudjoe questioned what was so remarkable about the four MPs whose seats had been declared vacant for the court to employ the speed of light in determining the matter, raising the possibility that their emoluments and other benefits would be affected.
The Supreme Court has declared its decision to grant the stay of execution of Speaker Alban Bagbin's declaration of four seats vacant because no by-elections could lawfully be held to replace the affected MPs between October 17, 2024, and January 7, 2025.