The Supreme Court of Ghana has rejected a petition challenging the outcome of the country’s December’s presidential vote, therefore confirming Nana Akufo-Addo’s re-election for another four-year term.
Making the decision public, Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah revealed that the ruling was a unanimous one between all seven judges in the panel. “The petitioner did not demonstrate in any way how the alleged errors affected the validity of the (results),” said Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah. “We accordingly dismiss the petition as having no merit.”
Opposition leader John Mahama, of the National Democratic Congress, appealed the election outcome after the country’s electoral commission declared on December 9, 2020 that he had received 47.4% of the ballots compared with Akufo-Addo’s 51.6%. Mahama, who was president from 2012 to 2017, described the results as illegal, saying the proper voter verification process wasn’t followed. He sought a Supreme Court decision that would declare them unconstitutional, null and void.
“We are legally bound by the decision of the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court of Ghana,” said Mahama, adding that “I disagree with the process of the trial and the ruling of the court.”
Mahama was particularly frustrated by the decision of Jean Mensa, chairwoman of the electoral commission, not to testify in the case. If she testified, this would have made her liable to cross-examination by the NDC’s legal team. Headed by veteran advocate Tsatsu Tsikata, the NDC team’s cross-examination of Mensa could have bolstered the opposition’s case in the public mind.
“[Mensa] was aided by her counsel and the court to avoid explaining to the good people of Ghana, under oath in a properly constituted court,” said Mahama, “the errors she herself admits to have committed in the declaration of the 2020 presidential election results.”
Meanwhile, Akufo-Addo acknowledged the unanimous ruling on Twitter, saying, “On Thursday, 4th March 2021, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, affirmed my victory in the presidential election of 7th December 2020”. He had officially been sworn in as president in January.
