THE REPUBLIC V. HIGH COURT (COMMERCIAL DIVISION) TAMALE, EX PARTE: MATHEW NYINDAM INTERESTED PARTIES: DANIEL NSALA WAKPAL & 2 ORS.

RULING

MAJORITY OPINION

KULENDI JSC:-

A. INTRODUCTION 

1. Having regard to the many election petitions that flood our courts  after each general election, one cannot help but agree with Niccolo di  Bernardo dei Machiavelli in his book titled “The Prince” when he said;  

“The desire to acquire power is truly very natural and common; and men  who succeed in doing so are always praised, not blamed.” 

(The Prince, 1532, ch. III) 

2. However, in a constitutional democracy such as ours, the pursuit of  political power is attained through the ballot box and persons who are  aggrieved by the outcome or processes may have solace in the court of  law. In other words, elections are the constitutional moment when the  sovereignty of the people is not only affirmed in language but performed  in practice. They are, in reality, the periodic renewal of the social  contract in the Hobbesian, Lockean or Rousseauian sense and because  elections are the clearest expression of collective self-government,  disputes con…