The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has flatly rejected the Electoral Commission’s (EC) decision to hold a rerun of the Ablekuma North parliamentary elections, describing it as a blatant violation of a court directive.
According to NPP General Secretary Justin Frimpong Kodua, the court’s instruction was clear: collate the remaining results and declare the outcome, not to conduct a fresh election.
“The Court made an explicit pronouncement that EC, we are giving you an order of mandamus, go and collate the outstanding polling stations and declare the results. The court never said, go and do a rerun,” Mr. Kodua emphasized during an interview on JoyNews’ PM Express on Tuesday, July 8.
He stressed that the NPP would not participate in what he called an “unlawful rerun” scheduled for July 11, 2025.
NPP Claims Evidence of Victory
The NPP maintains that it already had clear evidence of winning the disputed seat. Mr. Kodua stated that all 281 pink sheets were scanned and independently collated, showing the NPP candidate with 34,613 votes, ahead of the NDC contender who polled 34,199, a margin of 414 votes.
“We were very sure,” he said, until violence erupted at the collation centre, disrupting the process.
The party alleges that during the chaos, ballot papers were burned, pink sheets torn apart, and EC officials assaulted and forcibly removed from the premises.
“The Electoral Commission didn’t even have some of their pink sheets because they were destroyed,” Kodua noted, revealing that the EC later relied on the NPP’s scanned pink sheets to complete collation in some polling stations. “Some of our pink sheets are with the Electoral Commission because they relied on it, and they wanted to keep it for the record,” he added.
Question of Accountability and Security
When host Evans Mensah questioned whether the NPP, being in power at the time, should take some responsibility for failing to protect the collation process, Mr. Kodua deflected, emphasizing the need for professionalism from state institutions.
“That’s why it’s important our institutions are supposed to be impartial. That’s why it’s important our institutions are supposed to be professional,” he responded.
He also hinted at the possibility of politically motivated security failures: “So are you trying to tell me that the reason why the police failed to provide security… was because they were working under the behest of this government? Is it deliberate?”
EC Cited for Contempt
Returning to the legal issue, Mr. Kodua disclosed that the Electoral Commission has already been cited for contempt, asserting that the rerun plan directly defies the court’s mandate.
“The directive from the court was explicit… You cannot vary the order of the court,” he said. If the EC faced challenges implementing the court’s order, it should have sought clarification or requested a variation, not taken unilateral action. He warned that allowing the EC to proceed with the rerun could set “a bad precedent for this country.”
NPP’s Final Stand
As July 11 approaches, tensions around the Ablekuma North seat continue to mount. For the NPP, the situation is straightforward: the court ordered collation, not a rerun. Anything beyond that, Mr. Kodua asserts, amounts to contempt of court and overreach by the Electoral Commission.
