Freshmen of KNUST have been declared eligible to vote during the upcoming SRC Elections.
This comes after the ruling of the KNUST SRC Judicial committee dismissed freshmen from voting in the election.
The Dean Of Students, Professor Wilson Agyare, has declared that any student who has duly paid their Academic User facility fees and has undertaken biometric registration is considered a full student and therefore has the right to vote in the upcoming elections despite the ruling of the judicial committee which prevents first years from exercising their franchise.
The Interim SRC Judicial Committee on Monday ruled that the first years were excluded from the upcoming elections on Thursday, 28th January 2021 after a petition was brought before them to include the freshmen in the SRC elections.
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The petition was filed by the plaintiff, a second-year law student on January 21st, 2021 after the Interim SRC issued a statement to exclude first years from the upcoming SRC elections. The decision to exclude first years according to the ISRC EC was based on the fact that first-years are yet to be matriculated, thus, they are not in good standing to elect leaders to the respective SRC portfolios.
The plaintiff in his petition filed for an interpretation of Article 7(1) of the SRC Constitution 2011 as amended invoking the locus of the ISRC Judicial committee in article 56 (I)a and section 5(4) of the interim students’ representative committee Act 2020 for an interpretation of article 7(1) of the SRC Constitution 2011 as amended.
The Plaintiff also in his petition prayed the court to order the Interim Electoral Commission to include the first years, and proffer any orders that may deem fit to ensure that legitimize and protects the voting rights of first years in the January 28 elections.
The SRC interim Judicial Committee ruled in favor of the 1st respondent which was the SRC hence denying the first years the access to vote on Thursday, January 28 when KNUST goes to polls to elect SRC leaders.
