The Supreme Court has set aside the Electoral Commission’s (EC) re-collation and declaration of parliamentary results for four disputed constituencies, adding an interesting twist to the post-election dispute. These constituencies include Okaikwei Central, Ablekuma North, Tema Central, and Techiman South.
It will be recalled that on Friday, 20th December, an Accra High Court presided over by Justice Reverend Joseph Owusu-Adu Agyemang granted a Mandamus application filed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP), allowing the re-collation of results for six disputed constituencies.
However, the NDC rejected the ruling, arguing that the judge failed to hear the case of their candidates on the matter. The party, on the same day, filed a certiorari application at the Apex Court to quash the earlier ruling.
Among other requests, the NDC also sought an Order of Prohibition restraining the Electoral Commission (EC) from collating, re-collating, counting, recounting, or declaring the results in the contentious constituencies.
On Friday, 27th December, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice Gabriel Pwamang (presiding), Justice Prof. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, Justice Ernest Gaewu, Justice Henry Anthony Kwofie, and Justice Adjei Frimpong, unanimously upheld the NDC’s case in four out of the six listed constituencies.
In his ruling, Justice Pwamang noted that the High Court judge in the earlier case did not afford the NDC’s legal representative, Godwin Edudzi Tamekloe, the opportunity to present his case, stating:
The interested party said that because Mr Godwin Edudzi Tamekloe was allowed by the trial judge to speak, he was accorded a hearing, but they must realise that he was allowed to speak as a friend of the court, as recorded by the judge himself, and not as counsel for the applicants. This is an unfortunate misunderstanding of what amounts to a hearing in the mandamus application of this nature. A hearing plainly required the applicants to file an affidavit in the matter and to have made legal submissions. In this case, none of that happened, so the trial judge violated the right to a hearing of the applicants.
As a consequence, the court annulled the re-collation of results for the four constituencies, noting that the NDC had argued that there were earlier declarations of results in these areas.
We have taken note of the fact that the applicants did not contend that there had been earlier completed collations in respect of Nsawam Adoagyiri and Ahafo Ano North constituencies, per paragraph 8 of the affidavit sworn to by Fifi Fiavi Kwettey, dated 16th December, in support of the motion for judicial review filed by the applicants on 16th December 2024.
Since the orders which have been brought to be called are separate and distinct, we have decided to exercise our discretionary power to quash by certiorari, having regard to the peculiar circumstances of each ruling.
Consequently, we hereby quash the orders of mandamus made for collation of results by the Electoral Commission in the following constituencies: 1. Okaikwei Central, 2. Ablekuma North, 3. Tema Central, and 4. Techiman South. Accordingly, the collation of results in the above constituencies by the Electoral Commission after 20th December 2024, on the orders of the Court, are hereby set aside for the avoidance of doubt. The orders of the High Court made in respect of Nsawam Adoagyiri and Ahafo Ano North are not affected by this order.
The five-member panel of the Apex Court further noted that the application for mandamus filed by the NPP was still active and needed to be heard. The presiding judge, therefore, directed the case to be heard by another high court judge on Tuesday, 31st December 2024.
Having regard to the circumstance of time constraint on the national electoral calendar, we hereby abridge the time for hearing of the mandamus applications in the High Court and direct the High Court to hear the applications for mandamus on Tuesday, 31st December 2024. And I hope Tuesday is the 31st.
Meanwhile, reacting to the ruling, the lawyer for the NPP parliamentary candidates, Gary Nimako, stated that the party would abide by the ruling and urged calm among party members, noting that nothing had changed.
The NDC, on the other hand, was ecstatic and welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Read Full StoryThe Supreme Court has quashed the result declarations in four constituencies - Okaikwei Central, Ablekuma North, Tema Central and Techiman South.
— CITI FM 97.3 (@Citi973) December 27, 2024
The Parliamentary results declared for the Nsawam Adoagyiri and Ahafo Ano North constituencies, however, stand.
#GhanaPolls2024… pic.twitter.com/12zECUaGA2
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