Majority Chief Whip, Rockson-Nelson Etse Dafeamekpor, says the controversy over timelines in the Kpandai election petition is already settled by one decisive fact: only the final Gazette from the Electoral Commission (EC) holds legal weight.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Tuesday, December 2, the South Dayi MP dismissed arguments that the petition challenging the 2024 parliamentary results was filed out of time.
He insisted the timelines could only be counted from the EC’s final consolidated Gazette, not any earlier administrative publication.
“We were watching time… we know our calculation, our maths is not that bad,” he said, stressing that the filing was done within the legal window once the correct Gazette date was applied.https://www.youtube.com/embed/czaZ2Rq3wgs?si=Bd11pzqdZeEDfwfh
The private legal practitioner explained that by January 24, when the EC issued the comprehensive Gazette for all 276 constituencies, the Commission was still finalising results in a number of outstanding seats.
“They could not have released a comprehensive Gazette notification covering all the seats at the time,” he said. “So this was the Gazette notification containing all the seats in parliament.”
According to him, this final document is what both the petitioners and the court relied on. “They brought the 24th December one. The Court rejected it,” he noted.
When asked on what grounds the court dismissed the earlier Gazette, Dafeamekpor said it was simple: “That was not the final Gazette notification from the EC. The EC testified that this is their final Gazette notification.”
Pressed further on how many Gazettes were issued before the final one, he said he could not confirm the number but stressed that, in law, it did not matter.
“Even if the EC released several Gazette notifications, the last in time will take precedence over all the previous. That is triat. That is law.”
