Re-collated results: High Court to rule on NDC’s objection tomorrow

The Accra High Court has deferred its ruling on the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s preliminary objection to the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s mandamus application concerning four disputed constituencies. The decision will now be delivered on Wednesday January 1, 2025.

Reports from African Editors on Tuesday, December 31, confirmed that Justice Baah Forson Agyapong is presiding over the case.

Lawyers representing the NDC and its parliamentary candidates, who are at the heart of the disputed parliamentary election results in four constituencies, have raised a preliminary legal objection. The objection questions the jurisdiction of the High Court and the legitimacy of the mandamus application filed by the NPP against the Electoral Commission (EC).

Edudzi Tameklo, Counsel for the NDC and its four parliamentary candidates, argued that the mandamus application is, in effect, an election petition presented under the guise of a mandamus request. He pointed out that issues like intimidation and duress, cited by the EC as reasons for nullifying the election results, are substantive matters that fall under Sections 16 and 20 of PNDC Law 284, and must be proven through evidence in court.

During his oral submissions, Mr. Tameklo insisted that the case is fundamentally an election petition, not merely a mandamus application.

In response, Gary Nimako, lawyer for the NPP parliamentary candidates, dismissed the NDC’s objection as unfounded.

The presiding judge, Justice Forson Agyapong, has yet to make a ruling on the NDC’s preliminary objection on Wednesday December 1, 2025.

The Supreme Court had previously directed the Accra High Court to reconsider the NPP’s mandamus application and allow the NDC, represented by lawyer Godwin Edudzi Tameklo, to present its position. The NDC is an interested party in the ongoing dispute regarding four constituencies: Okaikwei Central, Ablekuma North, Tema Central, and Techiman South.

On December 27, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled 5-0, stating that the presiding judge should have allowed the NDC’s legal representation to be heard, given the direct impact of the ruling on their interests.

The NDC had been challenging a High Court decision requiring the Electoral Commission (EC) to re-collate parliamentary election results in nine contested constituencies. Candidates from both the NDC and NPP had filed a writ calling for fresh elections, citing irregularities in the collation and declaration of results.

On December 20, 2024, Presiding Judge Joseph Adu Owusu Agyeman had ruled that the EC should re-collate results for Ablekuma North, despite objections from the NDC’s legal team, led by Godwin Edudzi Tameklo. The NDC argued that the results had already been declared, but the court concluded that the irregularities in the process required re-collation.