Alexander Afenyo-Markin and Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor
A heated legal and political confrontation erupted on the floor of Parliament yesterday after the Majority Chief Whip, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, declared that the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kpandai, Matthew Nyindam, had automatically ceased to be a legislator following a High Court ruling ordering a re-run of the December 2024 parliamentary election.
Raising the matter on constitutional grounds, Mr. Dafeamekpor told the House that the Tamale High Court, on November 24, 2025, had ruled that the election which brought Mr. Nyindam to Parliament was flawed and must be re-run within 30 days.
By that decision, he argued, the MP no longer had the legal right to sit or participate in parliamentary proceedings.
He further informed the House that Parliament had been duly served with the court order, backing his claim with what he said was an affidavit of service filed by a court bailiff.
According to him, neither the filing of a notice of appeal nor an application for stay of execution automatically suspended the effect of the High Court’s ruling.
“The orders of the court are directed at Parliament as well as the Electoral Commission. We will not sit here and disobey orders of court,” the Majority Chief Whip insisted, urging the presiding officer to enforce the ruling by preventing Mr. Nyindam from taking his seat.
He cited the earlier case involving James Gyakye Quayson, where he said Parliament acted on a High Court decision affecting the MP at the time, arguing that precedent demanded similar treatment in the Kpandai case.
However, the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, strongly rejected the Majority’s interpretation of both the law and precedent. He challenged Mr. Dafeamekpor to bring the Hansard to support claims that he had previously argued for the removal of Mr. Gyakye Quayson from the House following a High Court ruling.
According to Mr. Afenyo-Markin, even after the High Court decision in the Assin North case, Parliament did not immediately bar Mr. Gyakye Quayson from participating in proceedings once an appeal and stay processes were initiated.
He insisted that a High Court ruling does not automatically strip a sitting MP of the right to participate in parliamentary work, particularly where appellate processes have been triggered.
The Minority Leader warned against what he described as a dangerous attempt to use parliamentary procedure to pre-empt the courts and deny an elected representative the right to represent his constituents while legal processes were still ongoing.
The matter generated intense exchanges on both sides of the House, with members invoking legal precedent, constitutional interpretation and political consistency.
Presiding over the sitting, the Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, eventually intervened and directed that the issue be frozen, indicating that the Speaker of Parliament, Alban S.K. Bagbin had asked him to leave the matter to him for a determination.
He ruled that Parliament would not make any determination on the status of the Kpandai MP, and ordered the House to move on with other business.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House