Supreme Court quashes High Court order for re-collation in four constituencies

The Supreme Court by a unanimous decision has quashed a High Court order for the re-collation of parliamentary results in four of the nine disputed constituencies.

The four constituencies are Tema Central, Ablekuma North, Techiman South, and Okaikwei Central.

The court, however, noted that two other constituencies, Ahafo Ano North and Nsawam Adoagyiri were lawfully re-collated because at the time of the High Court Order, the collation in those constituencies had not been completed.

The Judgement of the Court, which was delivered by the Presiding Judge of the five-member panel Justice Gabriel Pwamang, distinguished each case noting that “Since the orders which have been brought to be quashed are separate and distinct we have decided to exercise our discretionary power to quash by certiorari having required to the peculiar circumstances of each ruling.

“Consequently, we hereby quash the orders of mandamus made for collation of results by the EC in the following constituencies Okawkwei Central, Ablekuma North, Tema Central and Techiman South.”

According to the Court at the time the re-collation was done, the results in the four constituencies had already been collated and results declared so it was against the principles of natural justice for the Court to have ordered re-collation of the results without giving the NDC MPs hearing before giving the order for re-collation.