Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has warned lawyers to strictly calculate filing deadlines for election petitions from the date of the Electoral Commission’s (EC) gazette notification, following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Kpandai parliamentary election.
Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Midday News on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, Mr Kpebu said the decision serves as a “serious warning” to legal practitioners.
“Lawyers have to look to be sure that they are calculating exactly from the date of the gazette notification. In this case, at one point, the NDC candidate argued that the Kpandai results were not gazetted in the original EC gazette notification. A fuller copy was done later, but with this decision, it appears that the argument did not find favour in the court, just like in the Ernest Kumi case,” he said.
He added: “Once the EC comes out with a gazette notification, whether your constituency is in it or not, that is the date that must be used for calculating the filing of an election petition.”
Mr Kpebu’s comments come after the Supreme Court, in a 4–1 majority decision, overturned the High Court ruling that annulled the Kpandai parliamentary election won by the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Matthew Nyindam.
The decision followed an application filed by Mr Nyindam, invoking the Supreme Court’s supervisory jurisdiction to set aside the High Court ruling on the grounds of jurisdictional error. The apex court upheld his application, effectively restoring him as Member of Parliament for Kpandai.
The central issue before the Supreme Court was the date on which the EC gazetted the results of the 2024 parliamentary election for the constituency. Under Ghana’s electoral laws, an election petition must be filed within 21 days of the gazette notification of results. A petition filed outside this 21-day window is deemed incompetent.
Mr Nyindam argued that the EC gazetted the results on December 24, 2024, and any petition filed outside the 21-day period from this date would lack jurisdiction. He further contended that the NDC candidate filed his petition before the Tamale High Court outside the deadline, rendering the High Court without jurisdiction.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), however, argued that the election presented a special situation as the EC issued two gazette notices — one on December 24, 2024, and another on January 6, 2025. According to the NDC, the latter notice superseded the first, making it the operative date for calculating the filing period, and therefore the petition was properly filed within time.
The Supreme Court, however, ruled against the NDC’s argument, with the majority finding in favour of Mr Nyindam.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com