The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has stated that it will not take part in any rerun of elections in 19 polling stations in the Ablekuma North constituency on July 11, 2025.
“We will not go for any rerun.
We have won the elections.
What we are asking the Electoral Commission is to follow the court directive, finish the collation, and declare our candidate, Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie, as the MP-elect for Ablekuma North,” it noted.
At a press conference in Accra, the party’s General Secretary, Justin Kodua Frimpong, said the party had evidence that Nana Akua Afriyie won the seat.
Party's claims
Mr Frimpong who presented evidence to support the party's claim of winning the Ablekuma North parliamentary elections at the press conference said the party has scanned copies of all 281 polling station results, which show that the NPP candidate, Nana Akua Afriyie, won the election.
"We have 281 scanned pieces of all the polling stations at Ablekuma North and that is what is being shown on the screen," he said.
He revealed that after collating the results, Nana Akua Afriyie had 34,613 votes, while the NDC candidate, Ewurabena Aubynn, had 34,199 votes, resulting in a difference of 414 votes.
He cited results from the Church of Pentecost, Kokompe, Darkuman polling station where the NPP candidate got 122 votes while the NDC candidate obtained 95 votes and another polling station at the Kwashieman Pentecost Church polling station where Akua Afriyie of the NPP had 194 votes and Ewurabena Aubynn of the NDC had 127 votes to buttress his point.
Mr Frimpong questioned the EC's decision to conduct a rerun in 19 polling stations, saying that the party has already won in those stations.
"So how come the Electoral commission is telling us we should go and do a rerun in the polling stations that we have won already?" he asked.
"We have our evidence. Undeniable evidence. Overwhelming evidence to clearly show that we won Ablekuma North parliamentary elections," Mr Frimpong stated.
Certiorari
Meanwhile, Nana Akua Afriyie, has filed an application at the High Court to quash the decision by the Electoral Commission (E.C) to re-run 19 out of the 281 polling stations in the constituency.
In an application for judicial review in the form of a certiorari, counsel for the applicant, Gary Nimako Marfo, is of the view that there is a pending High Court order directed at the EC to collate and declare the winner of the elections in the constituency.
As a result, counsel argues that the EC committed a grave administrative error when it failed to comply with the order in the absence of a contrary directive from the High Court.
“The EC acted in excess of jurisdiction when it decided to re-run 19 out of the 281 polling stations in the Ablekuma North Constituency in the absence of any court order varying, vacating and/or overturning a subsisting High Court judgment dated January 4, 2025.
“The decision of the EC to re-run 19 out of the 281 polling stations in the Ablekuma North Constituency is arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and wrongful in the exercise of discretionary power,” Mr Marfo argued.
Context
On January 4 this year, the High Court in Accra, presided over by Justice Forson Baah Agyapong, ordered the EC to collate and declare the results of 62 outstanding polling station results in the constituency in addition to the 219 already collated results.
That was after the judge held that the EC’s inability to collate all the 281 polling station results before declaring the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate Awurabena Aubynn the winner meant that the commission’s mandatory duty had not been performed.
The judgment came after Afriyie had filed an application in the nature of a mandamus to allow the EC to complete the collation of the outstanding results.
On January 6 this year, the EC commenced the collation of the results in compliance with the court order.
Since then, the EC could only collate results from 59 out of the 62 outstanding polling stations, leaving three due to a misunderstanding between both parties.
On July 2 this year, the EC fixed July 11 to rerun the said polling stations parliamentary election.
The NPP rejected the decision by the EC to rerun the election in 19 polling stations to resolve the impasse in the Ablekuma-North Constituency, leading to this fresh legal action to stop the EC from re-running the election.
Reliefs
In her reliefs, the applicant is asking the High Court to make a declaration that the EC’s decision to re-run the elections in the 19 polling stations not only violates the January 4, 2025,High Court order but also constitutes an arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and wrongful exercise of discretionary power.
She also wants an order prohibiting the EC from conducting the exercise and a further order directed at the EC to comply with the January 4 order.
The applicant also wants the High Court to restrain the EC from re-running the election.
