Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie: NPP candidate asks High Court to stop Ablekuma North election re-run
The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Ablekuma North Constituency in the 2024 election, Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie, has filed an application at the High Court seeking to quash the Electoral Commission’s (EC) decision to re-run elections in 19 out of 281 polling stations in the constituency.
In an application for judicial review in the nature of certiorari, counsel for the applicant, Gary Nimako Marfo, argues that there is a pending High Court order directing the EC to collate and declare the results of the elections in the constituency.
He contends that the EC committed a grave administrative error by failing to comply with the court’s order, in the absence of any directive to the contrary.
“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,” counsel argued.
Background
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 stations in addition to the 219 already collated in the constituency.
The ruling followed a legal action by Afriyie, who filed an application in the nature of mandamus to compel the EC to complete the collation of the full results.
The court held that the EC had failed in its mandatory duty by declaring the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Awurabena Aubynn, as winner without collating results from all 281 polling stations.
In response to the judgment, the EC commenced collation on January 6 but was only able to complete the process for 59 out of the 62 outstanding polling stations, leaving three unresolved due to disagreements between the parties involved.
Subsequently, on July 2, the EC fixed July 11 as the date for a re-run of the parliamentary election in 19 polling stations in the Ablekuma North Constituency.
The NPP has since rejected the decision, prompting this fresh legal challenge aimed at stopping the re-run.
Reliefs sought
The applicant is seeking a declaration that the EC’s decision to conduct a re-run in the 19 polling stations is in violation of the January 4 High Court order and constitutes an arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, and wrongful use of discretionary power.
She is also requesting an order to prohibit the EC from proceeding with the re-run and a further order compelling the Commission to comply with the January 4 directive.
In addition, Afriyie is asking the court to issue an injunction restraining the EC from conducting the re-run.
