The Minority’s opposition to the repeat of the Ablekuma North parliamentary elections has been contested in a few polling places by Mahama Ayariga, the leader of the Majority Caucus in Parliament.
He says he thinks that if the rerun is held, the minority will be showing a seeming fear of an open election process.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament on July 3, 2025, Ayariga asked why the minority would disagree with the decision, considering that the Electoral Commission had decided to rerun the election to ensure a fair process after finding that some pink sheets required for the collation of results in Ablekuma North had not been verified by the presiding officers.
“And if the scanned pink sheets were not verified by their [EC] own presiding officers, on what basis should that be used? That is why they are calling for a rerun of those 19 polling stations. I don’t know why you are afraid. Why are you afraid?” he queried.
Ayariga, who represents Bawku Central as a member of parliament, advised against making the Electoral Commission’s ruling a political issue. He dismissed as baseless the minority’s accusations that the EC is being pressured into holding fresh parliamentary elections.
“So, please let us not try to politicize this and say that because recently the national chairman of one political party made a statement that the EC is intimidated.
No, it’s just fair and reasonable that if their own officers did not verify those pink sheets, they should rerun those polling stations,” he cautioned.
The Electoral Commission’s (EC) decision to rerun the parliamentary elections in 19 polling places within the Ablekuma North Constituency was sharply rejected by the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to the Electoral Commission, the results from the impacted polling places were collated without the presiding officers’ approval or verification.
The NPP, however, maintains that there were not enough significant anomalies in those polling places to call for a rerun. Friday, July 11, 2025, is the day of the election rerun.
