Kpandai Election Battle Heads to Supreme Court: MP Challenges Rerun Order

Kpandai Election Battle Heads to Supreme Court: MP Challenges Rerun Order on Timing Error

The fight for the Kpandai Constituency parliamentary seat in Ghana has reached a crucial stage at the Supreme Court. The incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Mathew Nyindam of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), is challenging a High Court ruling that annulled his 2024 election victory and ordered a fresh poll.

Mr. Nyindam’s central argument is a matter of legal timing: he contends that the High Court should never have heard the case because the initial election petition against him was filed 11 days late, making the entire proceedings invalid.

The Core of the Legal Dispute: A Missed Deadline

The entire appeal hinges on a strict procedural requirement in Ghana’s electoral law.

The Law: Ghana’s Representation of the People Law, 1992 (P.N.D.C.L. 284), specifically Section 18, mandates that any petition challenging a parliamentary election result must be filed within 21 days of the official result being published in the Government Gazette.

The Timeline:

Election Date: December 7, 2024

Gazette Publication: December 24, 2024

21-Day Deadline: The legal window to file a petition closed on January 14, 2025.

The Filing Date: The petition was filed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Daniel Nsala Wakpal, on January 25, 2025.

According to the MP’s legal team, led by Gary Nimako Marfo, the petition was filed 32 days after the Gazette publication, meaning it was 11 days after the statutory 21-day deadline had expired.

🎙️ MP’s Affidavit: Jurisdictional Error

In his affidavit to the Supreme Court, Mr. Nyindam argues that by accepting the late petition, the High Court fundamentally exceeded its legal authority (a jurisdictional error).

“The Parliamentary Election Petition filed by the 1st Interested Party on 25th January 2025… was invalid and could not have properly invoked the jurisdiction of the High Court, Commercial Division, Tamale,” the affidavit states.

High Court Ruling and Supreme Court Action

On November 24, 2025, the High Court, Commercial Division in Tamale, ruled in favor of the NDC challenger, annulling the Kpandai election results and ordering the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct a rerun within 30 days.

Mr. Nyindam is now seeking a judicial review in the nature of certiorari from the Supreme Court. This is a powerful legal remedy that, if successful, would quash the entire High Court judgment and all related proceedings, effectively restoring his victory based on the argument that the case was null and void from the start due to the late filing.

The MP’s legal team contends that upholding the High Court’s decision, despite the procedural breach, would severely undermine the statutory rules governing election petitions in Ghana.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear this critical jurisdictional matter on Tuesday, December 16, 2025.

The Annulled Election Results (Dec 7, 2024)

Prior to the High Court’s annulment, Mr. Nyindam had secured a clear victory margin:

The Supreme Court’s decision will determine not only the future of the Kpandai seat but also underscore the strictness with which Ghana’s judiciary interprets and enforces the statutory deadlines for challenging election results.