Supreme Court overturns High Court ruling on Kpandai election

The Supreme Court has, by a 4–1 majority, overturned the High Court’s ruling annulling the Kpandai parliamentary election won by the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s Matthew Nyindam.

Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, who presided over the panel, dissented.

The decision follows an application filed by Mr Nyindam seeking to invoke the Supreme Court’s supervisory jurisdiction to set aside the High Court’s ruling on the grounds of jurisdictional error.

The court upheld his application, effectively restoring his election as Member of Parliament.

The central issue before the Supreme Court was the date on which the Electoral Commission (EC) gazetted the results of the 2024 parliamentary election for the Kpandai constituency.

Under Ghana’s electoral laws, an election petition must be filed within 21 days of the gazette notification of results. A petition filed outside the 21-day period will not give the court jurisdiction to hear the case.

Mr Nyindam’s case was that the EC gazetted the results on 24th December 2024. Therefore, any petition filed outside of the 21-day period counting from this date would be deemed to be incompetent.

He further argued that the petitioner brought his case before the Tamale High Court outside of this window, and the court, therefore, lacks jurisdiction to entertain the petition.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), however, maintained that the 2024 elections presented a special situation, as the Electoral Commission issued two gazette notices, one on 24th December 2024 and another on 6th January 2025.

According to the NDC, the latter gazette superseded the earlier one, and the operative date for calculating time should, therefore, be 6th January 2025.

They argued that the petition was properly filed within time and that the High Court acted lawfully.

However, it would seem that the NDC’s argument did not find favour with the majority of the Supreme Court justices who heard Matthew Nyidam’s application.

The panel that determined the matter was made up of Justices Gabriel Scott Pwamang, Amadu-Omoro Tanko, Yonny Kulendi, Samuel Kwame Adibu Asiedu, and Henry Kwoffie.

The full reasoned judgment of the court is to be ready on 6th February, 2026.