Matthew Nyindam
The Supreme Court (SC) has set January 28, 2026, to deliver its judgement on an application challenging the decision of a High Court in Tamale which ordered the re-run of the 2024 parliamentary election in the Kpandai Constituency in the Northern Region.
In the meantime, the court has extended the injunction imposed on the Electoral Commission (EC) barring it from taking any steps to conduct the re-run of the election which was won by the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Matthew Nyindam.
At the centre of the legal challenge is an allegation by Mr. Nyindam that the court’s decision to annul the election result and call for a fresh election is not grounded in law, as the court did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter in the first place.
His arguments before the apex court are anchored on the contention that the election petition was filed at the High Court outside the 21 days after the publication of the gazette prescribed by the Representation of the People Law, 1992 – PNDCL 284, as the case was filed before the High Court on January 25, 2025, while the election result had been gazetted on December 24, 2024.
The Supreme Court, by a unanimous decision on December 16, 2025, suspended the re-run of the Kpandai Constituency parliamentary election pending the determination of an application filed by Mr. Nyindam, challenging the decision of a High Court in Tamale which ordered the re-run.
This, according to the court, is to ensure that the court is not overreached by the re-run pending the application which it said discloses prima facie.
Moving the application yesterday, his lawyer, Gary Nimako Marfo argued that the High Court judge committed jurisdictional error of law when he assumed jurisdiction to entertain the parliamentary election petition filed by the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Daniel Nsala Wakpal outside the mandatory 21 days after the results had been gazetted.
He submitted that the petition filed by Mr. Wakpal was out of time and, therefore, the High Court judge ought to have satisfied himself that he had jurisdiction before assuming jurisdiction to hear that matter.
“Having not done that, we submit that the petition and the judgement ought to be struck out by this court,” Mr. Marfo urged the court.
He further indicated that “having regard to the fact that the High Court judge assumed jurisdiction outside the mandatory scope prescribed by statute which is the condition precedent, this error is so apparent on the face of the record and this court (Supreme Court) cannot close its eyes to it, and this warrants this court to exercise its jurisdiction to quash same. We have showed this court that the High Court went outside the scope of jurisdiction prescribed by the law.”
Sika Abla Addo, counsel for Mr. Wakpal, opposed the application and argued that Mr. Nyindam is “cherry picking gazette notifications” in his attempt to challenge the decision of the High Court.
She said there two gazettes – the January 6, 2025 on the back of which the petition was filed and determined by the High Court and then another one issued on December 24, 2024, while urging that the January 6, 2025 gazette should take precedent over the December 24, 2024 gazette.
“With all intent and purposes, the court was satisfied that there was a gazette notification on January 6, 2025 and it was on the back of this that the court assumed jurisdiction and proceeded to hear the matter and delivered a judgement. It could not have lost on everybody, including the EC that it published gazette on December 24, 2024 as at the time this petition was filed,” she argued.
“We are urging this court to accept the January 6 gazette, as that gazette formed the basis of the proceedings of the High Court which emanates from the EC,” Madam Addo added.
Justin Amenuvor, counsel for the Electoral Commission, on his part, indicated that the result of the Kpandai Constituency was gazzetted on December 24, 2024, and went ahead to present a copy of the gazette notification to the court.
The Supreme Court will give its final decision on the matter on January 28.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak