Ghana’s apex court, the Supreme Court today, Thursday, March 4, 2012 upheld the re-election of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as president of Ghana. Per the Supreme Court’s judgment, President Akufo-Addo was validly elected during the December 7, 2020, presidential elections.
This was announced by Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah who led a seven-member panel which sat over the 2020 Election Petition since hearing began on January 14, 2021.
“The petitioner has not provided any evidence to rebut the evidence created by the presumption CI135, for which his action must fail” Chief Justice Anin-Yeboah remarked as he read the Supreme Court’s decision.
According to the Supreme Court, it did not get reason to order a re-run as pleaded by the petitioner, former President John Dramani Mahama. Concluding, the Chief Justice stated “We accordingly dismiss the petition as having no merit.”
During the over the two-hour judgement, the court basically held that the petitioner failed to conclusively prove any of the issues that it had filed for determination.
The issued for determination were as follows:
1. Whether or not the petition discloses any reasonable cause of action
2. Whether or not based on the data contained in the declaration of the 1st Respondent (EC), no candidate obtained more than 50% of the valid votes cast as required by Article 63 (3) of the 1992 constitution
3. Whether or not the 2nd Respondent still met article 63 (3) of the 1992 constitution threshold by the exclusion or inclusion of the Techiman South constituency Presidential Election Results of 2020
4. Whether or not the declaration by the 1st Respondent dated the 9th of December was in violation of Article 63 (3) of the 1992 constitution
5. Whether or not the alleged vote padding and other errors complained of by the petitioner affected the outcome of the Presidential Election results of 2020.
Former President Mahama who is the National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate lodged his petition at the apex court challenging the Electoral Commission’s (EC) December 9 declaration of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as president-elect.
The former president dragged both President Akufo-Addo as the first respondent and the EC as the second respondent to the top court.
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