The NPP General Secretary has questioned the impartiality of state institutions, accusing them of acting under political influence and undermining the country’s democratic process.

Justin Frimpong Kodua, speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Tuesday, July 8, doubted the integrity of the Electoral Commission and the Ghana Police Service in handling the controversial Ablekuma North parliamentary election.

“So that is why it’s important that our institutions are supposed to be impartial. That’s why it’s important our institutions are supposed to be professional,” he stated.

He argued that law enforcement failed to maintain order during the critical collation of three outstanding polling stations.

Host Evans Mensah questioned whether the NPP, as the party previously in government then, should take responsibility for the breakdown in law and order.

But Mr Kodua responded with a sharp inference that the police may have been compromised under the current administration.

“So are you trying to tell me that the reason why the police failed to provide security for us to complete the coalition of the three outstanding polling stations was because they were working under the behest of this government (NDC)?”

He further challenged the Electoral Commission’s justification for not completing the collation.

“The EC said that they needed security, per your knowledge, under the instruction of the president,” Mr Kodua said, implying that the EC used security concerns as a convenient excuse to derail the process.

He cited a court order issued on January 4, 2025, which he says gave clear directions to the EC.

“The Court made an explicit pronouncement that EC, we are giving you an order of mandamus — go and collate the outstanding polling stations and declare the results. The court never said, go and do a rerun.”

Pressed on why the NPP had not taken the EC to court over what appears to be defiance of a court order, Mr Kodua responded firmly.

“That is why we are in court. Do you know the details of our writ?”

When told the writ was for an injunction against the rerun, he replied, “So do you know other strategies that we are putting out? So I’m telling you, we are in court, and the EC has been cited for contempt.”

He insisted that the EC has no legal authority to change the court’s instruction on its own.

“The directive from the court [was] explicit. Go collate and declare. And you cannot vary the order of the court. Even if… you had a legitimate concern that the directive… is unenforceable, the only remedy is to go back to the court to get a further directive or a varied directive.”

Mr Kodua warned that allowing the EC to proceed with a rerun based on its own assessment would set a dangerous precedent.

“It does not lie on the EC to conduct elections and after elections sit in the office and say that for convenience sake… we are going to do a rerun. That will be a bad precedent for this country.”

He concluded by defending the party’s legal challenge and contempt application against the EC, calling it a necessary step to protect democratic accountability.

“There’s a reason why the EC’s work is to conduct elections, but anything that departs from [that]… it is only [a] court of competent jurisdiction that can lead that directive.”