Kpandai election rerun: Minority accuses judge of obstructing appeal

The Minority in Parliament has accused the Tamale High Court of obstructing the appeal process in the Kpandai election dispute after the presiding judge, Justice Emmanuel Bart Plange Brew, failed to release the written judgment nullifying the constituency’s 2024 parliamentary results.

According to Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the judge promised in open court to deliver the full, reasoned judgment on Friday, 28 November 2025 — a deadline that has passed without explanation.

The Minority raised these concerns in a statement shared on Facebook on Monday, December 1, 2025.

The written judgment, the minority stated, is required for Mathew Nyindam, the declared winner of the 2024 Kpandai parliamentary contest, to effectively challenge the ruling at the Court of Appeal.

This comes after Justice Plange Brew last week issued an order annulling the entire parliamentary results of Kpandai and directing a fresh election within 30 days.

The decision immediately raised concerns within the Minority, which questioned the legal basis for cancelling all 152 polling stations when the petition before the court challenged only 41.

However, the Minority says its concerns have deepened as the judge has neither provided the written reasons for his ruling nor responded to two formal requests submitted by Nyindam’s lawyers on 24 and 28 November for a certified copy of the judgment.

“This is no longer a mere delay. It is paralysis of the appellate process by the very court whose order is under challenge,” the Minority Leader said.

He stressed that without the written judgment, Nyindam cannot prosecute his appeal, the Electoral Commission cannot properly act on the 30-day directive, and the public cannot assess the constitutional basis on which an entire constituency’s vote was voided.

Afenyo-Markin warned that the situation undermines transparency, due process and the integrity of the judiciary, particularly because the ruling affects the composition of Parliament and strips a sitting MP of his mandate without providing the legal rationale.

He called on Justice Plange Brew to immediately publish the full judgment and respond to the pending applications, arguing that “our constitutional democracy cannot function on unexplained directives.”

Nyindam has already filed a notice of appeal and applied for a stay of execution of the High Court’s order, but both actions remain stalled until the written ruling is released.

CitiNewsRoom