A High Court in Accra has ordered the Electoral Commission to complete the collation of Parliamentary results in four (4) constituencies – Tema Central, Ablekuma North, Okaikwei Central, and Techiman South by January 6, 2025.
The court presided over by Justice Baah Forson Agyapong also directed the Inspector-General of Police to provide adequate and armed security during the collation exercises in the disputed constituencies.
This followed a grant of an application for mandamus filed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidates in the affected constituencies to compel the EC to complete the collation processes in the four disputed constituencies which were declared in favour of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidates, leading to confusions and misunderstandings.
Three candidates from the NPP – Patrick Yaw Boamah, Okaikwei Central; Charles Forson, Tema Central and Martin Adjei-Korsah, Techiman South, have been declared MPs-elect following the court-mandated collation of results.
Decision
The trial Judge’s decision for a completion of the collation processes was anchored on the principles guiding the grant of a mandamus application rather than an election petition.
Justice Agyapong emphasised that for a mandamus application to succeed, the applicant must prove one or more of the following grounds: a lack or excess of jurisdiction, error of law on the face of the proceedings, failure to follow the rules of natural justice, or the Wednesbury principles.
He also pointed to the need to demonstrate that there was a public duty to be performed, a demand for that duty to be carried out, and substantial prejudice due to the failure to perform the duty.
The NDC candidates had opposed the application on grounds that they were duly elected and that the application was incompetent, abuse of court processes and without merit.
They also argued that the application did not properly invoke the jurisdiction of the court.
Tema Central
In the case of Tema Central, the NDC had argued that Ebi Bright was rightly declared and that once a winner had been declared, the election is complete and the EC has become ‘functus officious’ (expiration of its mandate).
They further argued that if the NPP’s candidate, Charles Forson disagreed with the declaration, then his remedy lies with an election petition.
The Electoral Commission on the other hand indicated that supporters of the NDC were disruptive and required a declaration without the two outstanding polling stations.
It urged the court to make such orders that will enable it proceed with its work to complete the collation exercise thus, the two outstanding polling station results which could change the outcome of the election.
Justice Agyapong in his ruling held that the EC collated 148 out of 150 polling station results and there is evidence that the declaration was done by a person who is not the Returning Officer for the Constituency.
The court therefore ordered the EC to collate results from the outstanding two polling stations before declaring a winner since the winner is based on a simple majority.
Ablekuma North
In the case of Ablekuma North, Justice Agyapong found that the EC’s decision to declare results based on 219 out of the total 281 polling stations was incomplete, as it left out 62 polling station results which were not collated.
For this reason, the court held that the EC failed to perform its mandate and subsequently ordered it to complete the collation process by adding the outstanding 62 polling stations results before declaring an eventual winner.
Okaikwei Central
Justice Agyapong in his ruling on Okaikwei Central held that the EC failed to perform its public duty by declaring results from all the 141 polling stations and instead declared the NDC’s Baba Sadiq as the winner based on 110 out of 141 polling stations.
The court therefore ordered the EC to collate results for the outstanding 31 polling stations before declaring a winner.
Techiman South
Finally, Justice Agyapong in his ruling on the Techiman South situation said the EC was found to have declared results based on only 135 out of 282 polling stations thus, failing to carry out its public duty.
He, therefore, ordered a collation of the outstanding 147 polling stations before declaring a winner.
Justice Agyapong in his conclusion ordered the EC to collate the outstanding polling station results in the disputed constituencies and added to the previously declared results before final declarations are made by January 6, 2024.
Appeal
Meanwhile, the NDC has filed a notice of appeal against the decision of the High Court and attached a motion for a stay of the execution of the court’s decision.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak