NPP convenes emergency NEC meeting today over Ablekuma North election controversy

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is holding an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting today, July 7, 2025, at the party’s headquarters in Asylum Down, Accra, to deliberate on what it describes as an unconstitutional decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) to rerun parliamentary elections in 19 polling stations in the Ablekuma North Constituency.

The meeting, convened on the instructions of the party’s 2nd National Chairperson, Rita Talata Asobayire, comes amid a deepening rift between the NPP and the EC, following the Commission’s sudden U-turn on a court-ordered collation process of the 2024 parliamentary election results in the constituency.

The controversy centers around a High Court ruling issued on January 4, 2025, which compelled the EC to complete and declare results in four constituencies—Ablekuma North, Tema Central, Okaikwei Central, and Techiman South—whose parliamentary elections had stalled.

The EC complied with the directive in all but one: Ablekuma North.

According to the NPP, repeated attempts by the EC to carry out the collation exercise in Ablekuma North were thwarted by violent disruptions allegedly orchestrated by elements within the National Democratic Congress (NDC), including the party’s regional and constituency executives.

On January 17, 2025, the EC publicly accused NDC operatives of attacking its staff and vandalizing property at the collation center, making it impossible to continue the process.

Despite these challenges, the EC managed to collate 59 of the 62 outstanding polling station results in multiple sittings between December 2024 and January 2025.

By the Commission’s own admissions in letters, public statements, and even parliamentary testimony by its Deputy Chairperson, Dr. Bossman Asare, only three polling stations remained to be collated.

However, in a surprising turn, the EC announced on July 2, 2025, that it would rerun elections in 19 polling stations.

The rationale, according to the Commission, was that the results from those polling stations—though approved by political party agents—had not been verified by their respective presiding officers.

This explanation, the NPP argues, is “disingenuous, unlawful, and an afterthought.”

The party contends that the EC lacks the legal mandate to order a rerun of elections it already conducted unless a court orders such action.

They also questioned how one of the three polling stations previously acknowledged as pending—Glory Land Hotel Odorkor (1)—was omitted entirely from the list of 19 the EC seeks to rerun.

General Secretary Justin Kodua Frimpong, addressing a press conference on July 3, accused the EC of caving in to pressure from the governing NDC, citing recent threats by NDC Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah to remove the EC Chairperson and her deputies.

Justin Kodua warned that yielding to political intimidation risks setting a dangerous precedent that could destabilize future elections, including the 2028 polls.

“The EC cannot be allowed to pander to threats or political convenience. The Commission is a creature of law and must abide strictly by the Constitution and the High Court’s order. Ghana’s democracy must not be reduced to thuggery and manufactured chaos,” Kodua asserted.

The NPP insists that their candidate, Nana Akua Owusu Afriyieh, won the election with 34,613 votes against the NDC’s 34,199, and that this tally reflects the collation of all but the three remaining polling stations. They argue that the results were duly verified by party agents and EC officers, and should therefore stand.

The party has resolved to take legal action to block the EC’s intended rerun, accusing the Commission of acting capriciously and unconstitutionally.

In the meantime, today’s emergency NEC meeting is expected to strategize the next steps, amid growing tensions over what the NPP perceives as an attempt to overturn the will of the people of Ablekuma North.

The unfolding events have sparked calls from the NPP for civil society groups, religious leaders, and peace advocates to intervene and ensure Ghana’s democratic processes are not hijacked by what the party calls “a collision course between the NDC and the EC.”