Disregard Mahama’s petition – Akufo-Addo, EC charges Supreme Court

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the Electoral Commission of Ghana have both asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the election petition brought before it by the 2020 presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama.

In the latest development, the 1st Respondent and 2nd Respondent have all described Mahama’s petition as “incompetent, frivolous and vexatious”.

Lawyers of President Akufo-Addo argued that the claims made by John Mahama “are not supported by the facts pleaded in the Petition”.

“That in the circumstance, the petition is incompetent, frivolous and vexatious and discloses no reasonable cause of action in terms of 64(1) of the constitution.”

“2nd respondent accordingly invites this honourable court to determine that the petition is incompetent, frivolous and vexatious and discloses no reasonable cause of action in terms of 64(1) of the constitution and sets the issue down for legal arguments.”

The Electoral Commission through its lawyers also denied any wrongdoing and asked the court to dismiss the petition “for not disclosing any reasonable cause of action”.

“The 1st Respondent adds that Petitioner has failed to indicate the exact number of votes and percentages that he or the other candidates ought to have obtained in comparison to the number of votes and percentages declared by 1st Respondent.”

Background

Flagbearer of the NDC in the December 7, 2020 presidential election sued the EC and the New Patrotic Party’s (NPP) presidential candidate in the December 7 election, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the apex court challenging the outcome of the election which declared Akufo-Addo president.

Mr. Mahama wants the highest court of the land to amongst other things to restrain President Akufo-Addo from holding himself as the President-elect.

He also wants the apex court to order the EC to conduct a second election between him and President Akufo-Addo only arguing no candidate got more than 50% of the total valid votes cast in the presidential election.

Another relief sought by the former president is for the Supreme Court to declare that the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, breached the 1992 Constitution, specifically Article 63 (3) when she declared Akufo-Addo as president-elect on December 9, 2020.

The former president seeks these reliefs based on his claims that the results announced by Jean Mensa on December 9, 2020 could not have given any candidate the threshold required under Article 63 (3) to be elected president.

He argues that, he was supposed to have gotten 46.26% and not 47.366% of total vote cast when the EC declared the results without the Techiman South results, an indication something went wrong with the EC’s computation.

Mr. Mahama also alleged the EC “padded votes” in favour of president Akufo-Addo.