Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin
Parliamentary candidates whose results were overturned by the Supreme Court on Friday, December 27, 2024, are not qualified to take the oath of office as members of Parliament, according to Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin.
The re-collated results for the Okaikwei Central, Ablekuma North, Tema Central, and Techiman South constituencies were declared invalid by the Supreme Court due to procedural errors.
This decision was made following a legal challenge by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) against a December 20 High Court ruling that ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to re-collate the results of parliamentary elections in nine contested constituencies.
The High Court’s order was fiercely contested by the NDC, which claimed that the re-collation procedure was illegal and without merit. The party argued that the court had overstepped its jurisdiction, compromising the transparency and credibility of the electoral process.
Speaking in Parliament on Saturday, Bagbin stated that the Supreme Court’s decision aligned with his position, as the proclamation of the so-called MPs-elect was illegal.
“The decision of the Supreme Court just followed the position I took before they even delivered their decision. To become a member of Parliament, you have to be elected by the voters and declared by the Electoral Commission.
“But you also have to be sworn in by the Speaker. Until you are sworn in by the Speaker, you remain an MP-elect. So I was very clear in my mind that some of those re-collation and re-declarations were completely null and void.
“They were unknown to the law, and so they were not properly so-called MPs-elect and not qualified to be sworn in by me. My clerk is here; we had those discussions when I told them. They were all surprised. I said, yes, I’m the gatekeeper. The right thing must be done for us to be able to reset Ghana.”
Speaker Alban Bagbin Rejects Legitimacy of EC’s Re-Collation MP-Elects, Declares They Cannot Be Sworn In pic.twitter.com/2ZGDOaEbpe
— Ghana Chronicles (@_GhChronicles) December 28, 2024
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