High Court Rejects Akua Afriyie's Bid to Halt Ablekuma North Election Rerun

Jul 10, 2025 - 00:52

Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie is the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma North in the 2024 general elections

Accra, Ghana - 10 July, 2025 - The High Court in Accra has dismissed a legal challenge by Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma North, clearing the way for Ghana’s Electoral Commission to conduct a rerun of parliamentary elections in 19 polling stations on July 11, 2025.

The decision marks the latest development in a seven-month dispute over the constituency’s December 2024 election results, which were marred by violence and allegations of electoral irregularities, leaving Ablekuma North without a representative in Ghana’s 276-seat Parliament.

The controversy began during the December 7, 2024, general election when disruptions at collation centers in Ablekuma North led to the destruction of original result sheets, known as pink sheets.

The Electoral Commission initially declared the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Awurabena Aubynn, the winner, prompting a legal challenge from Afriyie.

On January 4, 2025, a High Court ruling, delivered by Justice Forson Baah Agyapong, ordered the EC to collate results from 62 outstanding polling stations and declare a winner, citing the commission’s failure to include all results as a breach of its constitutional duty.

The EC began collation on January 6 but could only process 59 of the 62 stations due to disputes, leaving three unresolved. On July 2, the EC announced a rerun in 19 polling stations, citing unverified results due to missing presiding officer signatures, a decision the NPP rejected as unlawful.

Afriyie, through her lawyer Gary Nimako Marfo, sought an injunction to halt the rerun, arguing it violated the January court order, which mandated collation, not fresh elections. The NPP claimed Afriyie won with 34,613 votes against Aubynn’s 34,199, a 414-vote margin, based on scanned pink sheets verified by party agents and EC officials.

In a July 8 press conference, NPP General Secretary Justin Kodua Frimpong called the rerun “arbitrary” and vowed to boycott it, asserting the court only directed collation of existing results.

The party further cited a January 27 EC press release and a June 19 parliamentary briefing by Deputy EC Chair Dr. Bossman Asare, which confirmed only three polling stations remained uncollated, questioning the jump to 19 for the rerun.

On July 9, Justice Ali Baba Abature dismissed Afriyie’s application, describing it as “unmeritorious.” He ruled that halting the rerun would undermine the EC’s constitutional mandate to ensure parliamentary representation for Ablekuma North, emphasizing that the balance of convenience favored completing the electoral process.

The judge noted that Afriyie’s team failed to prove under Regulation 42 of C.I. 127 that results could be collated without further verification, and the EC could compensate Afriyie with damages if she later succeeded in her substantive case.

Source: Lead News Online