The High Court in Accra will on Wednesday, January 1, 2025 (a New Year’s Day) deliver its ruling on preliminary legal objections against four “defective” applications for Mandamus from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) asking the Court to Compel the Electoral Commission (EC) to collate and declare Parliamentary election results.
The Court presided over by Justice Forson Baah Agyepong fixed the date after hearing submissions from lawyers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and same responded to by the EC and the NPP side.
Godwin Edudzi Tameklo, Counsel for the NDC Parliamentary Candidates (Interested Parties in the case) argued that the applications seeking to compel the EC to collate and declare elections that have already been declared is “defective and incompetent.”
He argued that, the nature of the application brought to the court was election “petitions in disguise” and that the proper process was for the Applicants to file an “election petition.”
“My Lord, we have a Preliminary legal objection of this Court to the jurisdiction and the competence of this Mandamus application,” Counsel for the NDC stated.
He said, “From the motion paper, the supporting affidavit and the supplementary affidavit together with the affidavit of the Respondent (Electoral) Commission (EC) this is an Election Petition disguised as a Mandamus Application.”
“This Mandamus (compelling) Application is a clever way to circumvent the proper hearing to be done by evidence,” Godwin Edudzi Tameklo, Director of Legal Affairs NDC told the Court.
“We submit that in this (Mandamus) case, where the election and the candidate has been declared even before the Mandamus application was filed, it is only an election petition that the applicant herein can invoke if he has any question as to the proprieties or otherwise of the declaration,” Counsel said.
“We submit that having used this Mandamus Application, clearly they (Applicants) are abusing the process of this court – Edudzi Tameklo, Counsel for NDC PCs submitted*
No results to challenge
Gary Nimako Marfo, Counsel for NPP Parliamentary Candidates while responding to the Preliminary Legal objection against Mandamus Application, said “The objection against the propriety of the Mandamus application is completely misconceived.”
He contended that, “the Applicant before you is not here to cancel election results because there is none to be canceled.”
*Our prayer is that the Respondent (EC) should perform its constitutional and statutory function under CI127 to simply collate and declare the winner of the parliamentary elections held on December 7, 2024,” Gary Nimako Marfo said.
For his part, Justin Amenuvor Counsel for the EC, wondered and said “How does the person who has raised the preliminary objection expects this court to say, whether or not there has been validly concluded election without going into the affidavits (merit) that have been filed before the court.
Four NPP Parliamentary Candidates – Charles Forson (Tema Central), Patrick Yaw Boamah (Okaikwei Central), Martin Kweku Adjei-Mensah Korsah (Techiman South), Nana Akua Owusu Afriye (Ablekuma North) have filed an applications for mandamus to compel EC tp collate and declare.
But, the Interested Parties from the NDC side have raised Preliminary legal objections against the applications.
On Friday, December 20, the High Court in Accra presided over by Justice Rev. Fr. Joseph Adu-Owusu Agyeman authorized the EC to re-collate the parliamentary election results for six constituencies.
The constituencies are Okaikwei Central, Ablekuma North, Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Tema Central, Techiman South, and Ahafo Ano North.
The Court also ordered the Inspector General of Police to provide adequate security to the EC at all collation centres.
The order of the Court was made on Friday December 20, 2024 following a Mandamus Application from six NPP Parliamentary candidates—Charles Forson (Tema Central), Frank Annoh-Dompreh (Nsawam-Adoagyiri), Patrick Yaw Boamah (Okaikwei Central), Martin Kweku Adjei-Mensah Korsah (Techiman South), Nana Akua Owusu Afriye (Ablekuma North), and Eric Nana Agyemang Prempeh (Ahafo Ano North)—are requesting two critical orders.
But following the order which has since December 21, 2024 been carried out, the NDC and its Parliamentary Candidates filed a certiorari application at the Supreme Court to quash the order of the High Court.
