High Court quashes injunction application against Ablekuma North re-run
The High Court has rejected an injunction application filed by Nana Akua Afriyie, the New Patriotic Party’s 2024 parliamentary candidate for the Ablekuma North, to stop a planned rerun of elections in 19 polling stations set for July 11, 2025.
At the court today, Justice Ali Baba Abature deemed the motion for the interim injunction “unmeritorious,” stating that it was essential for the Electoral Commission (EC) to fulfil its constitutional role in ensuring that citizens are represented.
Afriyie had argued that the EC’s decision went against a High Court ruling from January 4, 2025, which instructed the Commission to finalise the results from 62 polling stations and announce a winner for the December 7, 2024, parliamentary elections.
In court, the NPP’s lawyer, Gary Nimako, pointed out that after the January ruling, the EC publicly acknowledged, including in a press release on January 27, 2025, and during a parliamentary briefing by Deputy EC Chair Dr. Bossman Asare, that only three polling stations had not been collated.
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Nimako contended that the order to rerun elections in 19 polling stations was unwarranted and undermined the authority of the court.
He stressed that the results, or “pink sheets,” from all polling stations had been certified by party agents and presiding officers during the election process, making a rerun both unnecessary and illegal.
He cited Regulation 42 of the Public Elections Regulations, 2020 (C.I. 127), which stipulates that a rerun is only permissible in the event of a tie, a circumstance that the EC has not claimed exists.
Afriyie’s legal team contended that if the EC was facing difficulties in implementing the January 4 judgment, it should have sought clarification from the High Court instead of unilaterally deciding to initiate a rerun, which they regarded as contemptuous.
Justice Abature, while noting the EC was not present to respond to the motion, questioned whether the applicant had demonstrated that the results could be legally collated without further checks by presiding officers, a point unclear in counsel’s arguments under the guidelines of C.I. 127.
In his ruling, Justice Abature affirmed that the EC has the constitutional authority to manage elections, and any delay in proceeding with the rerun would hinder the citizens of Ablekuma North from having representation in Parliament.
“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,” Justice Abature ruled.
He added that should Afriyie succeed in her primary legal challenge, the EC, acting as a state entity, would be liable to provide compensation for any damages incurred.