The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Frimpong Kodua, has disclosed that the party has cited the Electoral Commission for contempt of court, after it unilaterally deciding to rerun an election, contrary to a specific court directive.
According to Mr Kodua, who is a legal practitioner by profession, the court’s instruction to the EC was clear: collate and declare the results.
Speaking in an interview with Joy News monitored by GhanaWeb on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, he asserted that the EC had no legal authority to vary or disregard that order, even if it believed the directive was difficult to enforce.
“The EC has been cited for contempt of court because the directive from the court was explicit, go collate and declare. And it cannot vary the order of the court even if you have legitimate concerns that the orders the court has given is not enforceable, the only remedy is to go back to the court get a further directive or a varied directive.
It does not lay on the EC to conduct elections, sit in the office and say that for convenience sake or based on their own extensive investigation we are going to do a rerun. That will be a dangerous precedent for this country.”
Mr Kodua emphasized that while the EC has the constitutional mandate to conduct elections, any deviation from the process, such as ordering a rerun after the election has been conducted, must be sanctioned by a court of competent jurisdiction.
“It does not lie suo moto on the EC to decide that we are going to do a rerun,” he stressed. “And that is why the party has cited the Commission for contempt of court.”
The General Secretary had firmly earlier rejected the EC’s decision to conduct a parliamentary rerun in 19 polling stations in the Ablekuma North Constituency on Friday, July 11, 2025, insisting that the NPP candidate, Akua Afriyie, rightfully won the 2024 election.
Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, July 8, Mr. Kodua argued that the NPP secured a clear victory in the constituency and accused the EC of undermining the will of the people by ordering a rerun.
“For us in the New Party Patriotic (NPP), we are resolute and we know that our candidate, Nana Akua Afriyie, won the elections with a margin of 414 votes. This is based on facts and figures. Yesterday, when the National Executive Committee met, we said that under no circumstances will we be intimidated.
“Under no circumstances will we go for a rerun. We will not go for any rerun. The New Patriotic Party will not go for any rerun. We have won the elections. What we are asking the Electoral Commission to do is to follow the court’s directive to finish the collation and declare our candidate, Akua Afriyie, as the MP for Ablekuma North,” the NPP General Secretary declared.
