Ghanaian hiplife musician, Maradona Yeboah Adjei,popularly known as Guru has been elected as the President of the Student Representative Council (SRC) of the University of Ghana.
Guru was announced winner of the polls on Wednesday, September 19, 2024. Guru together with his running mate, Jeffery Adu-Yeboah polled an overwhelming 9455 votes out of the total valid votes cast of 18,659. He secured 50.7% of the total votes.
His close contender, Emmanuel Owusu Amponsah and running mate, Lawrence Edinam Egleh secured 6645 votes, representing 35.6% of the total votes cast.
His candidature to contest the elections was marred with controversy prior to the polls.
Guru filed a petition against the University of Ghana’s Student Representative Council (SRC) Electoral Commission after his disqualification from the presidential race.The rapper had earlier been disqualified from the race on grounds of non-residential status.
The disqualification was based on the Hiplife icon’s non-resident status, a violation of Article 30, which mandates that candidates must be campus residents and eligible to contest for a Junior Common Room (JCR) position in their hall.
UG Decides: SRC set to conduct election Sept. 18 despite interlocutory injunction
His legal team responded by requesting a review of the ruling by filing a petition with the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs and the Electoral Commission.
He further submitted an interim injunction to the Judicial Board, asking for the election process to be temporarily suspended until a proper hearing and decision is determined.
After the hearing, the appeals Board on September 15, 2024, set aside the disqualification by a unanimous decision of 7-0.
An injunction against Guru’s reinstatement
However, a day to the elections, an Accra circuit court granted an interlocutory injunction against the conduct of this year’s University of Ghana Student Representative Council election after Guru’s reinstatement.
The plaintiff, Joseph Asioh Mawuli, a level 200 student, dragged the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, the Dean of Student Affairs, the SRC Electoral Commissioner and the University over the re-instatement of Guru NKZ into the SRC presidential race.
Guru reinstated in UG SRC Presidential race after winning appeal
He prayed the court to declare that “the decision by the vetting committee of the SRC to disqualify Adjei Yeboah Maradona and Emmanuel Owusu Amponsah for their failure to meet the qualification requirement under article 30(1)(a) of the SRC constitution is in accordance with law and of binding effect.”
The plaintiff also wanted “an order directed at the 4th defendant (UGSRC EC Mudassir-Ibn Ibrahim) to refrain from including Adjei Yeboah Maradona and Emmanuel Owusu Amponsah in the list of candidates to partake in the balloting and subsequent contest of the 2024 SRC election of the University of Ghana.”
Despite this plea, sources in the EC tells TV3’s Frederick Kunzote-Ani that the Commission had decided to go ahead with the online election scheduled for Wednesday, September 18, 2024.
Indeed, although an interlocutory injunction had been secured, the EC went ahead to conduct the elections as scheduled. A report by radio universe states that the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs debunked any restriction on the EC to hold the elections and confirmed the elections will happen.
