NPP’s interim injunction to halt Ablekuma North rerun dismissed

A motion for interim injunction filed by the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) 2024 parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma North Constituency in the Greater Accra region, Nana Akua Afriyie, at the Accra High Court has been dismissed.

Nana Akua Afriyie’s application was seeking to halt a planned rerun of parliamentary elections in 19 polling stations within the constituency which is in contention on Friday, July 11, 2025.

The applicant had argued that the electoral management body, the Electoral Commission’s (EC) actions contravened a binding High Court ruling from January 4, 2025, which directed the Commission to complete the collation of 62 outstanding polling station results and declare a winner for the December 7, 2024, parliamentary election.

Nana Afriyie’s legal team in court argued that the EC, if facing challenges with executing the January 4 judgment, should have returned to the High Court for clarification rather than unilaterally opting for a rerun, which they characterized as a contemptuous act.

Also in court was the NPP’s Director of Research and Elections, Mr. Evans Nimako, averred that following the January ruling by the High Court, the EC itself acknowledged in multiple public communications; including a press release dated January 27, 2025, and a parliamentary briefing by the Deputy Chairperson of the Commission responsible for Corporate Affairs, Dr. Bossman Asare, the members of the House that only three polling stations remained uncollated.

According to the NPP’s Director of Research and Elections, the EC’s earlier pronouncements make its current decision to rerun 19 polling stations not only unjustified but a direct affront to the court’s authority.

He emphasized that every polling station’s results, or “pink sheets,” had already been certified by party agents and presiding officers at the time of the election, making a rerun both unnecessary and unlawful.

Though the EC was not present to respond as the motion was filed ex parte, Justice Abature questioned whether the applicant had shown that the results could legally be collated without further verification by presiding officers, something counsel failed to establish clearly under the provisions of C.I. 127.

In his ruling, Justice Abature stated that the EC holds the constitutional mandate to conduct elections, and any delay in allowing the rerun would deprive the people of Ablekuma North of their right to representation in Parliament.

“After a careful and painstaking reading of the applicant’s motion paper, affidavit in support, statement of case as filed, as well as the supplementary affidavit… the application for injunction against the respondent is dismissed as unmeritorious,” Justice Abature ruled.

He added that the EC, as a state institution, would be in a position to compensate the applicant with damages if she is successful in her substantive legal challenge.

The Presiding Judge, Justice Ali Baba Abature, thus dismissed the motion for interim injunction for being “unmeritorious” adding that the balance of convenience favors the EC’s constitutional duty to ensure representation for the people.

A rerun can only occur if there is a tie,” he argued, referencing Regulation 42 of the Public Elections Regulations, 2020 (C.I. 127), which prescribes a rerun only in the case of an equality of votes, a condition the EC has not claimed.

By: Kwadwo BUABENG