A five-member panel of the Court, presided over by Justice Gabriel Pwamang, after hearing submissions from the parties, adjourned the matter to January 28 for ruling.
The Tamale High Court, presided over by Justice Emmanuel Brew Plange, on November 24, 2025, nullified the Kpandai parliamentary election results on grounds of “widespread irregularities” and directed the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct a re-run within 30 days.
Mr Gary Nimako Marfo, Counsel for Mr Matthew Nyindam, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Candidate, argued that the High Court judge committed a jurisdictional error by assuming jurisdiction to hear the election petition filed by the first interested party on January 25, 2025.
He said the election results in question were gazetted by the EC on December 24, 2024.
It said Article 99(1) of the 1992 Constitution conferred jurisdiction on the High Court to hear parliamentary election petitions only when such petitions were filed within 21 days after the gazetting of the official results.
Mr Nimako Marfo submitted that the petition filed by Mr Daniel Wakpal, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Candidate, on January 25, 2025, was filed out of time.
He said the High Court ought to have satisfied itself that it had jurisdiction before proceeding to hear the matter.
“We submit that the petition was incompetent, and the High Court judge ought to have struck it out for want of jurisdiction,” he added.
Counsel contended that the trial judge’s failure to comply with the mandatory statutory timelines constituted an error apparent on the face of the record, warranting the Supreme Court’s supervisory jurisdiction to quash the judgment delivered on November 24, 2025.
“Having breached Section 18 of PNDC Law 284, the judgment of the High Court ought to be quashed,” he added.
In opposition, Mrs Sika Abla Addo, Counsel for Mr Wakpal, relied on an affidavit in opposition filed on January 6, 2026, as well as her statement of case.
She argued that the gazette dated January 6, 2025, should take precedence over the December 24, 2024 gazette and that it was this later gazette that formed the basis upon which the High Court assumed jurisdiction to hear the petition.
“With all intent and purposes, the court was satisfied that there was a gazette notification on January 6, 2025, and it was on the basis of that gazette that jurisdiction was assumed,” she said.
She added that it could not have escaped the attention of the parties, including the EC, that there was no gazette published on December 24, 2024, at the time the petition was filed.
Mrs Addo urged the Court to accept the January 6, 2025 gazette, which emanated from the EC, as the valid gazette underpinning the High Court proceedings.
Mr Justin Amenuvor, Counsel for the Electoral Commission, told the Court that, as in the Akwatia case, gazette publications were initially available online before hard copies were obtained from the Assembly Press.
He said he later went to the Assembly Press to obtain the physical copies of the gazettes when the matter arose.
The Court ordered that all existing suspension orders should remain in force until January 28, 2026.
GNA
