The General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Kodua Frimpong, has said the party has taken the Electoral Commission (EC) to court for defying a court order regarding the collation of results in some polling stations in Ablekuma North.
He says the court had ordered the EC to collate the remaining polling stations’ results to declare the results of the December 2024 polls in the constituency, contrary to the election management body’s position for a rerun.
According to Kodua, the EC’s decision to conduct a rerun is a clear violation of the court’s orders, which constitutes contempt of the directive.
“That is why we are in court. Do you know the details of our writ? The EC has been cited for contempt of court because the directive from the court is explicit. Go collate and declare. You cannot vary the order of the court,” he said on JoyNews Tuesday, July 8, 2025.
Reiterating an earlier assertion by the party, the NPP General Secretary noted that the EC’s decision for the rerun is unilateral, saying it lacks the authority to do so.
Indicating that the development will set a bad precedent for Ghana’s democracy, Kodua noted that the Commission could have resorted to the courts for a variati on of the directive rather than going against the orders to conduct a rerun.
“It does not lie on the EC to conduct elections, and after elections, sit in the office and say that for convenience’s sake, based on their own extensive investigation or knowledge, we are going to do a rerun. That will be a bad precedent for this country.
“If, in any case, you had legitimate concerns that the directive that the court has given is unenforceable, the only remedy is to go back to the court to get a further directive or a varied directive,” he argued.
The December 7, 2024 elections was contested by Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as its parliamentary candidate, while Ewurabena Aubynn stood on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
But, the constituency still doesn’t have a Member of Parliament after for six months due to a dispute over the collation of results from some polling stations. This has prolonged representation for the constituents in Parliament.
Preliminary results released by the Electoral Commission (EC) showed Nana Akua narrowly winning the seat with 34,613 votes, against Aubynn’s 34,199 — a margin of 414 votes.
The NDC’s Ewurabena Aubynn rejected the results, claiming she was the legitimate winner. She further alleged electoral irregularities, including the fabrication of pink sheets and collusion between EC officials and the NPP.
On January 17, the collation process was suspended after alleged acts of vandalism at the EC’s Greater Accra office, prompting the NDC to stage a protest vigil in demand for transparency.
The alleged vandalism linked to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) resulted in the ransacking of the collation centre at the Greater Accra Regional Office of the Electoral Commission.
The Electoral Commission was scheduled to resume the collation of parliamentary election results for the Ablekuma North constituency on Friday, January 17, 2025.
However, the process was interrupted when more than 40 individuals stormed the venue, demanding that everyone vacate the premises and vandalise property, including louvre blades and doors.
The controversy intensified after a fire in December 2024 destroyed ballot materials stored overnight at a facility in Kwashieman, raising further concerns over the integrity of the electoral process.
On June 4, the Minority Caucus formally petitioned the Ghana Police Service to provide adequate security to facilitate a safe and transparent re-collation process.
During a parliamentary briefing on June 19, the Electoral Commission explained that the delay in completing the collation of results stemmed from the absence of legal advice from the Attorney General’s Department. The Commission also called on Parliament to assist in securing police protection for EC officials, party agents, and stakeholders during the process.
On July 2, 2025, the EC announced a rerun in 19 out of the 281 polling stations in the constituency, citing issues with unverified scanned pink sheets as the basis for its decision.
While the NDC welcomed the rerun and expressed confidence in Ewurabena Aubynn’s chances, the NPP strongly condemned the move, describing it as overreach by the EC and claiming it lacked legal precedent.
Ablekuma North rerun: NPP injuncts EC to block process – Salam Mustapha
