The High Court has rejected an attempt by Nana Akua Afriyie, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma North, to halt the Electoral Commission’s (EC) planned rerun of elections in 19 polling stations scheduled for July 11, 2025.
Justice Ali Baba Abature dismissed the application for an interim injunction, describing it as “unmeritorious.” He ruled that the Electoral Commission’s constitutional responsibility to ensure parliamentary representation for the people outweighs the applicant’s concerns.
Afriyie’s legal team argued that the EC’s decision contradicted a previous High Court judgment dated January 4, 2025. That ruling had ordered the Commission to complete the collation of 62 uncounted polling station results and declare a winner for the December 7, 2024, parliamentary election. Her lawyer, Gary Nimako, emphasized that by the EC’s own public admissions — including a press release and a parliamentary briefing — only three polling stations had results pending, making the decision to rerun voting in 19 locations both unlawful and a violation of the earlier court order.
Citing Regulation 42 of the Public Elections Regulations, 2020 (C.I. 127), Nimako argued that a rerun is only legally warranted in the event of a tie — a scenario the EC has not claimed exists. He stressed that results from all affected polling stations had already been signed off by presiding officers and party agents, rendering any rerun unnecessary.
Afriyie’s team contended that if the EC faced any difficulty executing the January 4 directive, it should have returned to the court for clarification instead of making a unilateral decision to conduct a rerun, which they claimed amounts to contempt of court.
However, Justice Abature noted that the applicant had failed to demonstrate that the uncollated results could legally be declared without further verification, especially under the relevant provisions of C.I. 127.
In his ruling, Justice Abature emphasized the EC’s constitutional mandate to conduct elections and stated that halting the rerun would unfairly deny Ablekuma North residents their right to parliamentary representation.
“After a careful and painstaking reading of the applicant’s motion paper, affidavit in support, statement of case as filed, as well as the supplementary affidavit… the application for injunction against the respondent is dismissed as unmeritorious,” he ruled.
He further noted that should Afriyie ultimately prevail in her main legal challenge, the EC — as a state institution — would be in a position to provide compensation through damages.
The rerun is expected to proceed as scheduled, pending the resolution of the substantive case.
