Court nullifies NPP Walewale primaries over impersonation, overvoting, ghost voters

Tamale, Ghana - In a landmark ruling, a High Court in Tamale has nullified the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primaries held in January this year, citing "incontrovertible irregularities" in the election process.

The court's decision comes after incumbent MP, Hajia Lariba Abudu, challenged the results of the primaries, alleging widespread irregularities, including wrongful determination of spoilt ballots, overvoting, and ghost participation.

Dr. Kabiru Tia Mahama, a staffer at the Office of the Vice President, had been declared the winner by a narrow margin of 7 votes.

However, Hajia Abudu contested the results, seeking an annulment of the primaries or a recount and validation of spoilt ballots, which she believed were wrongly declared and included many of her votes.

Summary of Judgement

Presided over by His Lordship Richard Mac Kogyapwah, a Justice of the Court of Appeal, sitting with additional responsibility as High Court Judge, the court ruled in favour of the plaintiff (Hajia Abudu) granting three of her reliefs.

The court agreed with the plaintiff that the primary was frought with irregularities and flagrant violations of the electoral rules and regulations such as the participation of dead delegates, impersonation and multiple voting in the polls for which reason the said elections are of no legal effect and are null and void.

The three reliefs of plaintiff granted by the court are:

1. A declaration that the results of the New Patriotic Party’s Parliamentary Primaries of the Walewale Constituency held on the 27th of January, 2024 were illegally declared by an unknown person who was not the officially assigned Electoral Commission official at a time when the controversy surrounding the 19 spoilt ballots had not been resolved thereby impugning the integrity of the purported results.

2. A declaration that the 27th January 2024 NPP’s Parliamentary Primaries in the Walewale Constituency was shrouded in irregularities and flagrant violations of the electoral rules and regulations such as over voting and the participation of dead delegates in the polls for which reason the said elections are of no legal effect and are null and void.

3. An order of the court annulling the purported results of the 27th January 2024 NPP Parliamentary Primaries in the Walewale Constituency and further order for a re-run of the said elections.

Abandoned Reliefs

According to the writ, the plaintiff, in the course of proceedings, abandoned the following reliefs:

1. An order of the Court for the ballots to be brought to court and recounted and where the ballots have been tempered with or cannot be procured an order for the re-run of the polls.

2. A declaration that when the 19 alleged spoiled ballots are scrutinized properly some of those ballots are valid votes in favour of the Plaintiff and when added to the valid votes cast in Plaintiff’s favour, Plaintiff will emerge as the winner of the polls.

Full judgement will be delivered on 12th September, 2024.

Source : Lead News