An application seeking to temporarily prevent the Electoral Commission (EC) from re-running elections at 19 out of 281 polling stations in the Ablekuma North Constituency on Friday, July 11, 2025, has been dismissed by the High Court.
The ex-parte application was filed by Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Ablekuma North Constituency in the 2024 election.
She was praying the court to halt the EC’s election proceedings for 10 days to allow the EC to justify its failure to comply with an existing High Court order dated January 7, 2025, regarding the collation and declaration of results from 62 outstanding polling stations, in addition to the 219 already collated in the constituency.
In a ruling on July 9, the court, presided over by Justice Ali Baba Abature, dismissed the application as unmeritorious.
The judge stated that the balance of convenience favored the respondents (EC), who have the constitutional mandate to conduct elections, ensuring that the people of Ablekuma North have proper representation in Parliament, which is their constitutional right.
“The respondent, as an extension of the executive arm of government, would be in a position to adequately compensate the applicant in damages should Afriyie win the substantive case,” the judge concluded.
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.
The party, therefore, filed a certiorari seeking to stop the EC from conducting the election.
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.
