The Supreme Court has deferred its judgement on the injunction against Akwatia Member of Parliament, Ernest Kumi, to June 11, 2025, stating that it has not yet concluded deliberations on the matter. This comes as a departure from the Court’s earlier announcement to deliver a ruling today, April 30, 2025.
The case stems from an interim injunction issued by the High Court on January 3, 2025, which prevented Mr. Kumi from being sworn into Parliament.
The injunction followed a legal challenge filed by Henry Boakye-Yiadom, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate and former MP, against the Electoral Commission (EC), Kumi, and the Clerk to Parliament.
Boakye-Yiadom contested the results of the December 2024 parliamentary elections, in which Kumi was declared the winner with 19,269 votes against his 17,206 votes.
In their arguments before before Supreme Court, Kumi’s legal team, led by Gary Nimako Marfo, maintains that the High Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the election petition as it was prematurely filed.
They prayed for an order of certiorari from the Supreme Court quashing the Koforidua High Court ruling dated February 19, 2025, the petition filed on December 31, 2024, and the interim injunction order on January 2, 2025, and ruling on January 6, 2025, made pursuant to the said premature Election Petition, filed December 31, 2024.
They argue that under electoral laws, election petitions must be filed within 21 days following the official publication of results in the gazette.
According to them, the gazette in question was issued on January 6, 2025, making Boakye-Yiadom’s December 31 petition invalid.
However, lawyers for Boakye-Yiadom, led by Bernard Bediako Baidu, countered that the EC had already gazetted the election results on December 24, 2024, under Gazette No. 234.
They challenged the authenticity of the gazette document presented by Kumi and accused his team of presenting an incorrect version.
The Electoral Commission’s lawyer, Justin Amenuvor, clarified that neither version of the gazette was tendered at the High Court during its initial proceedings.
He revealed that the court instead relied on an online publication cited by the NDC’s legal team to assume jurisdiction. Amenuvor argued that without an official gazette record before it, the High Court’s decision should be invalidated.