Kpandai By-Election: Supreme Court to Deliver Verdict on Matthew Nyindam’s Certiorari Application
- The Supreme Court is set to rule on a certiorari application filed by NPP’s Matthew Nyindam
- Nyindam is challenging a Tamale High Court ruling that annulled his 2024 election as MP for Kpandai
- The case hinges on the timing of the EC’s gazette notice and whether the election petition was filed within the legal timeframe
The Supreme Court is expected to deliver its ruling today on a certiorari application filed by the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary candidate for Kpandai, Matthew Nyindam.
In the application, which will be decided on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, Matthew is seeking to quash the Tamale High Court’s decision that annulled his election as Member of Parliament for Kpandai in 2024.
Source: Facebook
Matthew filed the application after the Tamale High Court ordered a rerun of the 2024 parliamentary election in the Kpandai Constituency.
The 2024 parliamentary candidate is asking the Supreme Court to exercise its supervisory jurisdiction to set aside the High Court’s ruling on grounds of a jurisdictional error.
The certiorari application centres on the single issue of when the Electoral Commission (EC) gazetted the results of the 2024 parliamentary election for the Kpandai Constituency.
Under Ghana’s electoral laws, an election petition must be filed within 21 days of the gazette notification of results.
If the petition is filed outside that period, the court lacks jurisdiction to consider it.
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Matthew Nyindam's argument and NDC's counterargument
Due to this, Matthew Nyindam argues in his application that the 21-day period for filing a petition began to run from the date the EC gazetted the parliamentary results on December 24, 2024.
He contends that any petition filed after the expiration of that window would be incompetent.
Based on this, Matthew Nyindam consequently argues that the High Court had no jurisdiction to hear the petition that led to the annulment of the parliamentary election.
Meanwhile, the NDC argues that the 2024 parliamentary elections presented a special situation.
According to them, the EC issued two separate gazette notices in respect of the parliamentary results, one on December 24, 2024, and another on January 6, 2025.
Supreme Court fumes over absence of EC representative
In a related development, the Supreme Court panel hearing the Kpandai election rerun case expressed discontent with the EC's absence from the court hearing.
When the case was called on December 16, 2025, the President of the five-member panel, Justice Gabriel Pwamang, asked why officers of the Electoral Commission were absent.
Graphiconline reported that Justice Tanko Amadu was also upset at the commission's absence.
“They don’t consider the actions serious enough? And they are running our election, and they’ll not come to the Supreme Court."
The Supreme Court eventually ordered the Electoral Commission to suspend all arrangements for the rerun of the parliamentary election in Kpandai pending the determination of an application challenging the High Court’s judgment that ordered the rerun.
Source: Facebook
KT Hammond 'rules out' Kpandai election rerun
YEN.com.gh reported that KT Hammond, former MP for Adansi-Asokwa, had claimed that the planned Kpandai parliamentary rerun will not happen despite EC setting a date.
He argued the NPP has filed an appeal and a stay of execution at the Supreme Court over the Tamale High Court ruling.
Proofreading by Samuel Gitonga, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.
Source: YEN.com.gh
