Maradona Adjei Yeboah (Guru) has filed an injunction against the University of Ghana (UG) Students’ Representative Council (SRC) over disqualification in the student leadership race.
In a social media post, Guru said he had petitioned the SRC Electoral Commission (EC) over the development after being axed from the pool of qualified candidates for the SRC presidential race.
“On Monday, 19th August 2024, we formally filed a petition against the SRC Electoral Commission’s decision to disqualify Maradona Adjei Yeboah (Guru NKZ) due to his non-resident status. This petition has been lodged with the Electoral Commission and the Office of the Dean of Students Affairs of our dear university,” he posted
“Additionally, our legal team has submitted an interim injunction to the Judicial Board, requesting a temporary halt to the electoral process until a proper hearing and ruling can be made”.
Background on Guru’s disqualification
In justifying the disqualification, the UG EC cited Article 30, which states that candidates who qualify to be elected must be residents of a hall on campus and must qualify to contest for a Junior Common Room (JCR) position in their hall.
“Upon a careful examination of the documents submitted, it was discovered that two candidates from the presidential and vice presidential aspirants, indicated their non-residential status, which they further confirmed during vetting the process,” the statement noted.
According to the UG SRC Constitution, “A student shall not be qualified to any executive office unless: he is qualified to contest under his hall’s constitution, except that a provision requiring a student to be in at least his third year in this University shall not disqualify such a person from contesting for any office under this article.”
It also states that a person who does not reside in any of the halls of the university shall not qualify to occupy a leadership position.
“The committee after a critical assessment of the qualification criteria, noticed that Maradona Adjei Yeboah and Lawrence Edinam Egleh do not meet the criteria stated in Article 30 (1) (a) of the UG-SRC Constitution and therefore do not qualify or are not eligible to contest for an Executive Officer position of the University of Ghana Students’ Representative Council (UGSRC).