Bagbin Declares: Nullified MPs-Elect Cannot Be Sworn In
Supreme Court Ruling Invalidates Re-Collated Results in Key Constituencies
- Results from Okaikwei Central, Ablekuma North, Tema Central, and Techiman South annulled due to irregularities
- The party contested the legality of re-collations, deeming them unlawful and lacking merit
- Bagbin affirmed his authority, declaring that only lawfully elected and declared MPs can be sworn in
Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has declared that parliamentary candidates whose election results were annulled by the Supreme Court on December 27, 2024, are ineligible to be sworn in as Members of Parliament on January 6, 2025.
The Supreme Court overturned the re-collated results in the Okaikwei Central, Ablekuma North, Tema Central, and Techiman South constituencies, citing irregularities. This decision came after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legally contested a High Court ruling from December 20, which ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to re-collate parliamentary results in nine disputed constituencies.
The NDC argued that the re-collation directive was illegal and undermined electoral transparency. The Supreme Court’s ruling affirmed Bagbin’s stance that such re-collated declarations were unlawful.
Addressing Parliament in Accra, Bagbin emphasized his authority as Speaker: “To become a Member of Parliament, you must be elected by voters, declared by the Electoral Commission, and sworn in by the Speaker. Until that happens, you remain an MP-elect. Some of those re-collations and declarations were null and void, unknown to the law, and therefore invalid. As Speaker, I am the gatekeeper, and the right thing must be done to reset Ghana’s democracy.”
