Bagbin: MPs-Elect with nullified results cannot be sworn in

Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has emphasized that parliamentary candidates whose election results were nullified by the Supreme Court on Friday, December 27, 2024, cannot be sworn in as Members of Parliament on January 6, 2025.

The Supreme Court’s decision invalidated the re-collated results for the Okaikwei Central, Ablekuma North, Tema Central, and Techiman South constituencies due to irregularities in the process. This ruling stemmed from a legal challenge by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which opposed a High Court directive issued on December 20. The High Court had instructed the Electoral Commission (EC) to re-collate results in nine disputed constituencies, a move the NDC described as unlawful and beyond the court’s jurisdiction. The party argued that the directive undermined the transparency and credibility of the electoral process.

Addressing Parliament in Accra on Saturday, Bagbin stated that the Supreme Court’s ruling validated his earlier stance that the re-collated results were illegitimate.

“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 voter, and you have to be declared by the electoral commission,” he explained.

He further clarified the legal requirements for assuming office as an MP, emphasizing that swearing-in by the Speaker is a crucial step:

“But you have to be sworn in by the speaker. Until you are sworn in by the speaker, you remain MP-elect. So I was very clear in my mind that some of those re-collation and re-declarations were completely null and void.”

Bagbin also stressed that the re-collation and declarations were not legally valid:

“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.”

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