–By Daniel Bampoe
The Minority Caucus in Parliament is intensifying pressure on the Electoral Commission (EC) and security authorities over the prolonged failure to declare parliamentary results for the Ablekuma North Constituency, nearly six months after the December 7, 2024, general elections.
In a dramatic show of resistance, Members of Parliament from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who now sit in the Minority following the 2024 elections, staged a protest march from Parliament to the Ghana Police Service Headquarters in Accra on Wednesday, June 4.
The MPs presented a petition demanding the immediate deployment of security personnel to facilitate the conclusion of collation and declaration of results in the troubled constituency.
Background of the Dispute
Ablekuma North, a traditionally safe seat for the NPP, remains the only constituency without a sitting Member of Parliament in the current 9th Parliament.
This anomaly stems from a series of violent disruptions, allegations of missing electoral materials, and legal threats that halted the collation of results in January 2025.
Reports from the EC confirm that inconsistencies in results from more than 20 polling stations led to the suspension of the collation.
Matters worsened when a fire, suspected to be arson, gutted sections of the Kwashieman Cluster of Schools, where some ballot materials were reportedly being held.
The destruction of electoral evidence has deepened the crisis, prompting a stalemate that has left over 140,000 constituents without representation since Parliament convened on January 7.
The standoff has been further inflamed by competing claims of victory from the two main political parties.
The NPP’s candidate, Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie, maintains that she secured a legitimate win and has openly rejected calls for a rerun, which she believes are politically motivated.
“We won the election and we have the pink sheets to prove it,” Owusu Afriyie told journalists during the protest.
“We collated the results with the NDC’s agent not once but six times. So why now this talk of a rerun? If the tables were turned, would they accept it?”
Her opponent, the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s Ewurabena Aubynn, has also laid claim to the seat, citing discrepancies and irregularities as evidence that the results are unreliable and must be re-evaluated or rerun.
Minority Petition
Frank Annoh-Dompreh, Minority Chief Whip and MP for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, led the petition presentation on behalf of the Minority.
Addressing journalists and police officials, he accused the EC and security agencies of infringing on the democratic rights of Ablekuma North residents by allowing the stalemate to persist.
“The continuous disenfranchisement of the people of Ablekuma North is a constitutional breach,” Annoh-Dompreh asserted.
“We demand that the IGP immediately provide security for the Electoral Commission to conclude the collation and declare the results. This is not just a political matter—it is a matter of democratic integrity.”
He cautioned that the delay not only undermines public trust in Ghana’s electoral system but also threatens the legitimacy of the 9th Parliament as it operates with an incomplete house.
Civil society groups including the Ghana Bar Association and the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) have weighed in on the crisis. While the Bar Association has called for an urgent institutional resolution to protect the constitution, CODEO has gone further to recommend a fresh poll if the impasse cannot be resolved with integrity.
Meanwhile, MP for Damongo, Samuel Jinapor, has also expressed frustration over the delay, asking, “What at all is holding up Ablekuma North results?” during a recent interview on Joy News.
The Road Ahead
With tempers flaring and the legitimacy of the EC under fresh scrutiny, the situation in Ablekuma North remains a test of Ghana’s democratic resilience.
The Electoral Commission has yet to issue a new timeline for resuming or concluding the collation, and the possibility of a rerun is neither confirmed nor dismissed.
