Supreme Court to hear NDC’s EC collation challenge on Friday

The Supreme Court will sit on Friday (December 27, 2024) to hear the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s application challenging the High Court’s decision that ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to collate and re-collate the parliamentary results in six constituencies.

An Accra High Court on December 20 ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to bring finality to the election in six constituencies by collating the results and declaring the winners in tandem with the electoral laws of the country.

The six constituencies were Tema Central, Nsawam-Adoagyir, Ablekuma North, Ahafo Ano North, Techiman South, and Okaikwei Central.

Apart from the order to collate the results and declare the winners, the court, presided over by Justice Rev. Fr Joseph Adu Owusu Agyemang, further ordered the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to provide the EC with adequate security at the collation centres to enable the commission to discharge its duties.

The court gave the orders after it upheld different mandamus applications filed by the respective New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidates (PCs) for the six constituencies.

NDC’s application

Barely four hours after the court’s ruling, the NDC, together with its parliamentary candidates for the affected constituencies, went to the Supreme Court with a certiorari application seeking to quash the decision of the High Court.

In its application before the Supreme Court, the NDC was of the contention that the High Court breached the rules of natural justice by failing to give its parliamentary candidates for the six constituencies a hearing before granting the mandamus orders for the EC to conduct the collation.

The application averred that the High Court committed a non-jurisdictional error of law by failing to exercise its powers under Order 55 rule 5(2) of C.l 47 to direct the second to sixth interested parties to serve the mandamus applications on the applicants who had interests in the subject of dispute.

Re-collation

Prior to the High Court’s order, the EC had already indicated that it would re-collate the parliamentary results of nine constituencies on the basis that the initial collations were illegal, as some were done under duress with incomplete statement of results sheets (pink sheets).

On December 21, the EC re-collated the results of seven out of the nine constituencies, with the NPP parliamentary candidates winning seven seats. The constituencies are Obuasi East, Nsawam Adoagyiri, Tema Central, Ahafo Ano North, Okaikwei Central, Ahafo Ano South West, and Techiman South.

Dome-Kwabenya and Ablekuma North are the two seats yet to be re-collated by the EC.

Source: Graphic Online