The Communications Director of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Ahumah Bosco Ocansey, has said that lawyers of the union are working on a response to the injunction served them by one of their Presidential Candidates, Ras Caleb Appiah-Levi.
In an interview with citinewsroom.com, Bosco who acknowledged receipt of the writ of summons said their lawyers have taken up the matter and would make sure it reaches an amicable solution.
“At the moment our lawyers are working on the summons and after filing our response we will see the way forward,” he noted.
According to him, the union received the writ on Tuesday, after they had already issued a statement to call off the national elections which were scheduled for July 10, 2019, following a meeting the Election Committee had with officials of the Electoral Commission.
He said the elections were postponed for the second time because the Electoral Commission had explained that they were embarking on an exercise that would engage their regional directors.
“We paid them their money and everything but they were arguing that they had just finished the Voter Registration exercise and were going to do mopping up exercise so it meant that the same people who would be handling the MUSIGA elections would be busy doing the paperwork. And they indicated further that their regional directors were also coming to Accra for a workshop and that because of the nature of our elections they would prefer that the regional ones are supervised by their directors,” Bosco explained.
Bosco further stated that they met the candidates on Monday and all the candidates agreed that they were good to go on Wednesday except for Ras Caleb who expressed his reservations about the elections and requested to consult his team first
“He wrote a petition to the committee earlier. And the letter said that all the issues he raised were addressed. Then subsequently there was a National Executive meeting and it was agreed that the elections would be held on the 10th of July,” Bosco said.
The Communications Director also refuted claims by Ras Caleb Appiah-Levi that non-members of the union had been registered.
He said the membership of the union is so broad that it encompasses a lot of people in the music industry.
On Tuesday, July 9, 2019, Ras Caleb Appiah-Levi, a presidential aspirant of the national executive elections of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), released a statement indicating that he had sought an injunction from the High Court to stop the yet to be held elections.
In the press statement, he mentioned that he was not happy with how election issues were being handled by the Election Committee.
“As an aspirant, I have been watching the electioneering process with keen interest and I have come to the realisation that there are a lot of beaches in the electoral system especially from the roadmap to the current situation of the voter’s list/notice of musicians,” he stated.
In the writ of summons, he was seeking a declaration that the current Voters Register compiled by the Election Committee of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) is not credible and same cannot in its flawed state be used for the conduct of the forthcoming 2019 National Executive Committee MUSIGA Elections to guarantee a fair and transparent outcome.
He also wants the Election Committee to “compile afresh an authentic and credible Voters Register.”
Meanwhile, it is not clear if the elections will come off as scheduled.
The response from the lawyers of the Union would determine what happens to the new election date.
