Court Tossed Earlier Gazette — Dafeamekpor Explains Legal Basis of Petition Timeline
Majority Chief Whip Rockson-Nelson Etse Dafeamekpor has dismissed claims that the election petition for the Kpandai parliamentary re-run was filed late, arguing that the decisive factor is the Electoral Commission’s final Gazette, not any preliminary publications.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Tuesday, December 2, the South Dayi MP asserted that the petitioners acted within the lawful timeframe because the countdown began only after the EC’s consolidated Gazette, which covered all 276 constituencies.
“We were watching time… we know our calculation, our maths is not that bad,” he said, insisting that the filing was within the legal window once the correct reference document was applied.
According to Dafeamekpor, the EC’s comprehensive Gazette was issued on January 24, at a time when some constituencies were still being finalised. This, he argued, renders earlier publications incomplete and legally irrelevant.
“They could not have released a comprehensive Gazette notification covering all the seats at the time,” he explained. “So this was the Gazette notification containing all the seats in parliament.”
He further revealed that attempts to rely on an earlier Gazette dated December 24 were dismissed during court proceedings.
“They brought the 24th December one. The Court rejected it,” he stated. When asked why, he responded:
“That was not the final Gazette notification from the EC. The EC testified that this is their final Gazette notification.”
Dafeamekpor emphasized that the number of Gazettes issued prior to the final one was immaterial in law. The legal principle, he said, is clear: the last valid Gazette supersedes all previous versions.
“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.”
