No military will be deployed to oversee the Parliamentary rerun elections in the Ablekuma North Constituency scheduled for today, Friday, July 11, the Minister for Defence, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, has assured.

In a Facebook post, he noted that, instead, the Ghana Police Service will be responsible for maintaining law and order during the process.

“The Ghana Police Service is trained to handle electoral security, and we trust them to do their job.

“To ensure a peaceful and democratic process, the Ghana Police Service will be fully in charge of security for today’s elections in Ablekuma North Constituency,” the Defence Minister stated.

The Electoral Commission (EC) will today hold a rerun election in 19 polling stations of the Ablekuma North to provide its constituents a representative after the 2024 parliamentary elections.

After the 2024 polls, Ablekuma North remained the only constituency in Ghana without a sitting MP, due to unresolved disagreements over the outcome of the parliamentary vote.

On December 10, 2024, three days after the national polls, the EC declared Ewurabena Aubynn of the NDC the winner of the Ablekuma North parliamentary seat, defeating the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Nana Akua Owusu Afriyieh.

However, the EC later revoked the announcement, revealing that results from 62 of the 281 polling stations had not been included in the initial collation.

Efforts to restart the collation in January 2025 were disrupted by multiple challenges.

These included interruptions due to the submission of unverified pink sheets and a violent intrusion at the collation centre that heightened security concerns.

The Electoral Commission (EC), after extensive deliberations, in July noted that it will hold the rerun election because the 19 scanned polling station results used for the collation, though approved by agents of both political parties, were not verified by the presiding officers responsible for those polling stations.

The EC arrived at this decision after it met with the representatives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Tuesday, July 1.

The EC's decision to hold a rerun met opposition from the NPP, leading the party to head to court for an interlocutory injunction application. The High Court dismissed the application.

The NPP noted that it won the 2024 Ablekuma North parliamentary election and, as such, will not participate in the rerun. According to the Deputy General Secretary, Haruna Mohammed, this is so because contesting in the election will set a dangerous precedent and compromise future elections.

However, the party's parliamentary candidate, Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie, has indicated that she will fully participate in the Parliamentary election

“I appeal to all the constituents to come out and vote massively for me so the glory of God will manifest. I have put my trust in God, and I know He will not disappoint me. I won the election by 440 votes, and I believe God will let the truth prevail tomorrow,” she stated.

Meanwhile, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expressed its decision to participate in the rerun election. The NDC will be represented by Ewurabena Aubyn.

Greater Accra Regional Director of Elections for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joshua Alabi, is optimistic that no challenges will be experienced during the election.

“There were security lapses in the last elections. The EC itself also failed to live up to its bidding in the last elections, but I believe they have done its homework. The security has also done their homework very well, so this time around, the tags we are going to use will have our names on them, which is one of the means too."

"I am very much convinced that with the few I have seen on the ground, I don’t think we are going to have the lapses we experienced the last time. If we are able to be on the ground ourselves, we are part of the security, nothing untoward is going to happen, and it is only 19 polling stations. I don’t foresee any challenge. If there is one, the security will take care of them," he said.

Ahead of today's election, the EC called on the Ghana Police Service to provide the needed security to ensure a safe environment for the conduct of the election.

Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) in Charge of Corporate Services, Dr Bossman Asare, has affirmed that the Ghana Police Service and the National Election Security Taskforce have pledged to ensure security before, during, and after the upcoming Ablekuma North parliamentary rerun.