2013
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case revolves around the presidential election held in Ghana on the 7th and 8th of December 2012, where the New Patriotic Party (NPP) challenged the declaration of John Dramani Mahama as President-elect. The Ghana Supreme Court dismissed the petition challenging the 2012 Presidential Elections results, determining that alleged irregularities (e.g., over-voting, biometric issues, presiding officer non-signatures, duplicate serial numbers, unknown and duplicate polling stations) largely did not affect the validity of the election outcomes. The judges emphasized a substantive interpretation of the law prioritizing the right to vote and procedural integrity. They acknowledged the need for electoral reforms to address identified lapses and maintain the transparency and credibility of future elections.
ATUGUBA, JSC
By their second amended petition dated the 8th day of February 2013 the petitioners claimed, as stated at p.9 of the Written Address of their counsel;
“(1) that John Dramani Mahama, the 1st respondent herein, was not validly elected President of the Republic of Ghana;
(2) that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the 1st petitioner herein, rather was validly elected President of the Republic of Ghana;
(3) consequential orders as to this Court may seem meet.”
Although the petitioners complained about the transparency of the voters’ register and its non or belated availability before the elections, this line of their case does not seem to have been strongly pressed. In any event the evidence clearly shows that the petitioners raised no such complaint prior to the elections nor has any prejudice been shown therefrom. Indeed even in this petition the petitioners claim that the 1st petitioner was the candidate rather elected, obviously upon the same register. So also their allegations that there were irregularities and electoral malpractices which “were nothing but a deliberate, well-calculated and executed ploy or a contrivance on the part of the 1st and 2nd Respondents with the ultimate object of unlawfully assisting the 1st Respondent to win the 2012 December Presidential Elections.” Indeed the 2nd petitioner for and on behalf of all the petitioners, testified that the first respondent did no wrong with regard to the conduct of the elections but was merely the beneficiary of the alleged malpractices, irregularities and violations
Eventually the core grounds of their case are as summarised at p.125 of their counsel’s Written Address as follows:
“I. over-voting
II. voting without biometric verification
III. absence of the signature of a presiding officer
IV. duplicate serial numbers i.e. occurrence of the same serial number on pink sheets for two different polling stations
V. duplicate polling station codes, i.e. occurrence of different results/pink sheets for polling stations with the same polling station codes
VI. unknown polling stations i.e. results recorded for polling stations which are not part of the list of 26,002 polling stations provided by the 2nd respondent for the election.”
At conference we unanimously saw no merit in ground IV relating to “duplicate serial numbers i.e. occurrence of the same serial number on pink sheets for two different polling stations.”
We were at a loss as to how the embossment of the same number on more