Supreme Court unanimously upholds 2020 election victory of Akufo-Addo

The Supreme Court of Ghana has upheld the re-election of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as president of Ghana. The decision means he was validly elected during the December 7, 2020, presidential elections.

The verdict was read out today by Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah who led the seven-member panel that has been sitting on the 2020 Election Petition since the 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.

"We therefore have no reason to order a re-run as pleaded by the petitioner. We accordingly dismiss the petition as having no merit,” the CJ said in conclusion to 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.

The Petition was lodged at the apex court by former president John Dramani Mahama, who was flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC. Mahama was challenging the EC’s December 9 declaration of Akufo-Addo as president-elect.

Mahama dragged two parties to the top court. They were: the Electoral Commission and President Akufo-Addo as first and second respondents respectively.