Zanetor Confirm She Lied In Court, Cited For Perjury

First Daughter of former President Rawlings and embattled parliamentary candidate elect for the Klottey Korle Constituency Dr. Zanetor Rawlings has confirmed that she was not a registered voter in Ghana as at November 2015 when she contested to be elected as NDC parliamentary candidate.

 This is a sharp contradiction to her own pleadings in her defence in the high court where she denied the claim of Hon. Nii Armah Ashietey that she was not a registered voter before the primaries.

Her confirmation came up today Thursday April 28 when she registered as a voter in the EC’s limited voter registration exercise meant for those who don’t have their names in the EC’s voter’s register of 2012.

 This has raised questions of whether or not she may have committed perjury, a 2nd degree felony.

According to the Criminal Offences Act 1960 (Act 29) Sec 211 states ‘a person permits perjury if in a written or verbal statement made or verified by that person on oath before a court or a public officer…states anything knowing that the statement is false in material particular, or which that person does not have a reason believe is true’.

Hon Nii Armah Ashietey's Writ of Claim sec 21  also states "The Plaintiff says that the 2nd Defendant's name is NOT in the National Biometric Register 2012 neither is it in the NDCs biometric voter register of its members compiled in 2015 and same used for the parliamentary primaries in the Klottey Korle constituency"

In response to Ashietey’s claims, Zanetor's Statement of Defence said in sec 8 that .. "Paragraphs 21 &22 of the Statement of Claim are denied and the Plaintiffs shall be put to strict proof thereof’.

It has therefore come as a surprise to many who are keenly following this unprecedented case in court to see Zanetor Rawlings now registering as a voter in the on-going limited registration exercise of the electoral commission of Ghana. 

Though no one has gone to court yet to press a case of perjury against Zanetor Rawlings, it is likely to come up any time soon as many legal brains and political watchers continue to deliberate on the issue in the coming days and weeks.

The issue of Zanetor’s status in the voters register first came up on the voting day during the NDC primaries last November when she claimed to the media that she could not find her name in the NDC party’s register.

It was then suggested at the time by Mr. Ade Coker, NDC Greater Accra Regional Chairman that anybody whose name was not on the NDC party register was possibly not on the national voter’s registers since the two must correspond.

Zanetor Rawlings and her supporters however remained adamant, insisting that her name is in the national voters register. Her registration today as a voter has therefore come as a surprise to many who believed her earlier story and who had confidence in her honesty and integrity.

‘This is a day of shame for Zanetor Rawlings’, said Sam Ayittey, a disappointed Klottey Korle constituent who has always maintained that Zanetor was a registered voter before the primaries.

He continued ‘I have always been misled to believe that she cannot be fooling all of us, and the court. I swear I cannot believe that this girl could be so dishonest and take all of us for a ride.’

A court case filed by incumbent MP Nii Armah Ashietey against Zanetor’s election as a parliamentary candidate last November when she was not a registered voter is still pending before both the high court and the Supreme Court.

The incumbent MP is asking the high court to nullify her election on the basis that she breached both the NDC and the national constitutions.

Zanetor Rawlings has so far failed in two separate attempts to have the case against her thrown out by the high court, and her lawyers have now proceeded to the Supreme Court for redress. The case in the Supreme Court will be heard on My 3 2016.

It has been argued that this latest registration by Zanetor Rawlings cannot take retroactive effect to validate her election.