The Supreme Court hearing the election petition on Thursday confirmed that President John Dramani Mahama was validly elected as the winner of the 2012 Presidential election. The court by majority decision therefore dismissed the petition filed by Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and two others. Justice William Atuguba, President of the nine-member panel who read the judgment stated that the court arrived at the decision after scrutinising the petition filed by the petitioners.
He said the court had found out that the issues to be determined were set out by the counsel for the petitioners as follows: over voting, voting without biometric verification, absence of the signature of the presiding officer and duplicate serial numbers. He said the court unanimously dismiss the claims relating to duplicate serial numbers, duplicate polling station codes and unknown polling stations. However, Justice William Atuguba, Justice Sophia Adinyera, Justice Sulley Gbadegbe and Justice Vida Akoto-Bamfo dismissed the other claims of the petitioners.
Justice Julius Ansah, Justice Rose Owusu and Justice Anin-Yeboah however upheld the claims of the petitioners relating to over voting, voting without Biometric Verification Device (BVD) and no signature of Presiding officer. They called for a re-run of those affected polling stations. Justice Jones Dotse also rejected the other claims of the petitioners except two which are over voting and no signature of the Presiding officer and a re-run of those affected polling stations. Besides, Justice Baffoe Bonney dismissed the additional claims of the petitioners except one, voting without BVD. Justice Atuguba in summing up the verdict stated that President Mahama was validly elected and therefore dismissed the NPP petition.
Source: Ghana News Agency
