The Tamale High Court, presided over by Justice Emmanuel Brew Plange, has annulled the 2024 parliamentary election results for the Kpandai constituency and ordered a fresh poll within 30 days, following a successful legal challenge.
The petition was filed by National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate Daniel Nsala Wakpal, who claimed that the December 7, 2024, election was tainted by serious irregularities.
He alleged inconsistencies in Form 8A (the “pink sheet”) from 41 polling stations out of the total 152, arguing that these breaches violated Regulations 39 and 43 of the Public Elections Regulations (CI 127).
In its ruling, the court agreed that non‑compliance with electoral regulations materially affected the integrity of the vote. It has accordingly ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct a rerun of the parliamentary election in the entire constituency.
The sitting Member of Parliament for Kpandai is Matthew Nyindam of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who was declared the winner in the December vote.
This legal dispute did not emerge in a vacuum. On election day, tension erupted at the collation centre amid allegations of vote‑rigging by NDC supporters. Some reports say biometric verification devices (BVRs) were removed, ballots destroyed, and frustration boiled over, prompting the deployment of security forces.
In his judgment, Justice Plange intervened decisively, demanding that the EC restore credibility by organising a transparent re‑poll.
In the election of 2024, the NPP’s Matthew Nyindam secured 27,947 votes representing 53.47%, whereas the NDC’s Daniel Nsala Wakpal got 24,213 votes representing 46.33%.
A third contestant, Donkor Eric Nipani of the APC, polled a meagre 104 votes representing 0.20%.
This means that between the NDC and NPP, the vote difference was 3,734.
Meanwhile, lawyers for the NPP candidate immediately filed for a stay of execution pending a determination of an appeal.
Lawyer for NDC’s Daniel Nsala Wakpal, speaking after the court proceedings, insisted that the case was “very simple”, arguing that the Electoral Commission’s district officer acted in breach of the law and denied his client the right to participate fully in the collation process.
“We had a rogue electoral commission district electoral officer who decided to abuse discretion. What is important and why this case is significant is that at every district election collation centre, there are certain rights that are preserved for the candidates.”
He explained that the EC official unlawfully relocated the collation centre without notifying the candidates, preventing the NDC candidate from exercising his rights, including asking for recounts and challenging irregularities.
“You don’t relocate the district or redesignate the collation centre without notice to the participating candidates… The failure to notify the petitioner of the relocation meant that clearly there was no way he could have participated in the collation and be able to exercise his rights.
The counsel welcomed the ruling, saying it restores the power of the people of Kpandai.
“The only alternative would be to rerun the election… The power and the sovereignty lie with the people. It is for them to decide who their MP is, and you cannot be a beneficiary of such an incident and call yourself an MP.”
Deputy Director of Elections and IT for the NDC, Rashid Tanko Computer, also addressing journalists after the ruling, claimed the judgment confirmed the party’s long-standing allegations of electoral manipulation.
“All along, the NDC has been saying that there are several crooked electoral officers who are bent on stealing people’s mandates. And one of these is what has been exposed today.”
According to him, the EC failed to follow CI 127 procedures for parliamentary collation, insisting that officials abandoned the legal processes and declared the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate using “cooked results”.
“They didn’t do the collation. They just organised themselves, ran to Tamale, cooked some results and announced Nyindam as parliamentary candidate elect.”
He said the NDC pursued the matter lawfully and was confident of victory in the upcoming by-election.
“The NDC is the most lawful political party in Ghana. We didn’t use lawless means to get this verdict. We made sure that we followed through the process, and we have gotten a favourable judgment.”
He then issued a warning to the NPP ahead of the impending by-election.
“I can assure you, we are appealing to our opponents, the NPP, they shouldn’t come for the by-election because we will hand them some heavy defeats. If they still want to have some kind of respect for the good people of Ghana, they should chicken out like they chickened out in Tamale Central.”
Source: Clara Seshie & Martina Bugri
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