Dr John Osae-Kwapong, a Democracy and Development Fellow at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has expressed surprise at the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the annulment of the Kpandai parliamentary election but described the outcome as reassuring.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile programme on Saturday, January 31, Dr Kwapong said the ruling, though unexpected, demonstrates growing maturity in the handling of parliamentary election disputes.
“I wasn’t expecting that ruling, but I was pleased in the sense that when I go and look at how we have handled disputes about parliamentary elections,” he explained, saying parliamentary election disagreements too quickly escalated into violence, highlighting Akwatia as an example.
“I think there are two elections, and I think Akwatia, where there were some violent incidents in terms of the numbers leading to contestations of who was the rightful winner,” he noted.
The comments follow a 4–1 majority decision by the Supreme Court, which quashed a High Court ruling that had annulled the 2024 parliamentary election results in Kpandai and ordered a rerun.
The apex court’s ruling halted the planned rerun and confirmed Matthew Nyindam of the New Patriotic Party as the duly elected Member of Parliament.
Despite the ruling, the matter may not yet be fully settled, as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expressed dissatisfaction and indicated its intention to explore a review of the Supreme Court decision.
This has reignited debate over the threshold for review applications and what constitutes a “glaring error” in the eyes of the court.
