The Supreme Court will hear the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) appeal contesting the High Court's directive that the Electoral Commission (EC) compile and re-collect the parliamentary results in six seats on Friday, December 27.
On December 20, an Accra High Court ruled that the EC must complete the election in six constituencies by compiling the results and announcing the winners in accordance with the nation's electoral regulations.
Okaikwei Central, Techiman South, Ablekuma North, Ahafo Ano North, Nsawam-Adoagyir, and Tema Central were the six constituencies.
The court, presided over by Justice Rev. Fr. Joseph Adu Owusu Agyemang, instructed the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to give the EC sufficient security at the collation centers so that the commission could carry out its responsibilities in addition to ordering the results to be compiled and the winners to be announced.
Following the upholding of various mandamus applications submitted by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidates (PCs) for each of the six constituencies, the court issued the orders.
the use of NDC.
The NDC and its parliamentary candidates for the impacted constituencies filed a certiorari application with the Supreme Court about four hours after the court's decision, hoping to overturn the High Court's verdict.
According to the NDC's complaint to the Supreme Court, the High Court violated natural justice principles by denying its parliamentary candidates for the six constituencies a hearing before issuing mandamus orders to the EC to perform the collation.
By failing to use its authority under Order 55 rule 5(2) of C.L. 47 to order the second to sixth interested parties to serve the mandamus applications on the applicants who had interests in the matter at hand, the application claimed that the High Court had committed a non-jurisdictional error of law.
Re -collation
Prior to the High Court’s order , the EC had already indicated that it would re-collate the parliamentary results of nine constituencies on the basis the initial collations were illegal , as some were done under duress with incomplete statement of results sheets (pink sheets).
On December 21, the EC re-collated the results of seven out of the nine constituencies , with the NPP parliamentary candidates winning the all the seven seats.
The constituencies are Obuasi East, Nsawam Adoagyiri , Tema Central , Ahafo Ano North, Okaikwei Central, Ahafo Ano South West and Techiman South .
Dome – Kwabenya and Ablekuma North are the two seats yet to be re-collated by the EC.