The Supreme Court of Ghana with one voice has dismissed the election petition brought before it by the 2020 Presidential Candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama.
This according to the apex court is because the case before it has no merit.
Former President John Mahama who lost the 2016 elections and re-contested the 2020 December 7 polls on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), took the Electoral Commission to court, challenging the legitimacy of the results and the declaration of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the winner.
“The petitioner did not demonstrate in any way how the errors committed by the EC affected the declaration of the election…We have therefore no reason to order a re-run of the polls. We accordingly dismiss the petition,” Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin-Yeboah said while reading the ruling of the court on Thursday, March 4, 2021.
In his petition filed on December 30, 2020, Mr. Mahama sought five reliefs from the apex court. He asked the Supreme Court to rule that the election results as declared by the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, breached the constitution.
He further asked the court to annul the results of the polls and order the EC to organize a run-off between himself and Nana Akufo-Addo.
The petitioner called three witnesses to make his case at the court–Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, Dr. Michael Kpessa-Whyte and Rojo Mettle-Nunoo–and they were cross-examined.
The justices of the apex court further told witnesses of the petitioner, Mr Rojo Mettle-Nunoo and Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte to blame themselves for abandoning their duties in the strong room during the final collation of the election results if their claims are to be believed.
Mr. Mahama in his closing address insisted that he discharged the burden of proof placed on by the constitution.
But the Respondents; the Electoral Commission and President Akufo-Addo admonished the apex court to dismiss the petition.
They argued that the petition was incompetent, lacked merit, and raised no reasonable cause of action.
The Issues:
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 Electoral Commission of President Akufo-Addo as president-elect, no candidate obtained more than 50% of the valid votes casts as required by Article 63 (3) of the 1992 constitution.
3. Whether or not the 2nd respondent still met the Article 63(3) of the 1992 constitution threshold by the exclusion or inclusion of the Techiman South constituency presidential election results.
4. Whether or not the declaration by the first respondent dated 9th of December 2020 of the results of the presidential election conducted on the 7th of December 2020 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.
Delivering the judgment, the court said “…Notwithstanding all these allegations of misunderstandings with the chair of the 1st respondent in the strong room and the fact that they were absent during the declaration, they did not give any indication as to how these happenings in their absence affected the final results announced by the 1st Respondent.
“Having signed or certified these forms, the witnesses, particularly PW 3 cannot turn round to talk about irregularities in the forms.
“The testimonies would have carried some little weight if the purpose of the petition was to change entries made on the collation forms or summary sheets but that is not the case.
“Their testimonies were therefore of no relevance to the said issues set out for determination and so we find them unworthy for consideration whatsoever.” We, therefore, have no reason to order a re-run as sort by the petitioner. So we accordingly dismiss the petition,” Mr. Anin-Yeboah inferred.