The academic calendar for 2020/2021 ends on Sunday, 21st November,2021. Earlier, this month on 1st November, 2021, the EC of the UG SRC officially declared the results of the 2021 SRC elections.
The SRC constitution which is a recognized document by the basic laws of the University of Ghana states that in article 32 that;
(1) A student an an executive officer shall subject to clause (3) of this article, hold office for a term of one academic year.
(2) Notwithstanding clause (1) of this article, the Executive officers shall hand over to newly elected Executive Officers within fourteen (14) days after declaration of the final election results.
The UG SRC Chief Justice who is mandated by the SRC constitution to conduct the swearing- in has indicated through the PRO of the outgoing administration that, the Dean of Student Affairs has halted the process though the academic calendar for 2020/ 2021 is ending on Sunday, 21st November, 2021.
The Constitutional procedure is to have the swearing- in process initiated whilst any other petition concerning the elections is being addressed.
Therefore, we, the Coalition of student against the abuse of power by the Dean of student Affairs, in accordance with the basic laws of the University of Ghana as well as the SRC constitution which do not grant the Dean of student Affairs any power to halt the swearing- in process of a newly elected SRC executives.
We are reliably informed, the committee to review petitions on the SRC elections 2021 has requested for an extension of the expected date to put out their final reports.
Therefore, the attempt by our Dean of student Affairs to intentionally cripple our student governance by strategically halting the swearing- in process of our newly elected SRC executives, till the final report from the committee to review petitions on the SRC elections 2021 amounts to an abuse of power and highly unconstitutional as far as the UG basic laws and the SRC constitution are concerned.
We will be forced to address our concerns through a press conference and an organized peaceful demonstration to submit a petition to the Parliament of Ghana, if this petition does not receive a reasonable response by 5:00 pm, Monday, 22nd November, 2021.
Convener,
Signed
Kwesi Atuahene