President Akufo-Addo has stated he is delighted because his validity as president was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court of Ghana.
The President in delivering his First State of the Nation Address for his second term noted that he felt happy to deliver the message of the state of the nation.
He described the ruling of the Apex Court as well reasoned and excellent ruling.
President Akufo-Addo commended the Apex Court for its role in dealing with the petition.
A seven-member panel of Supreme Court Judges last week in a unanimous decision dismissed the election petition filed by the 2020 NDC Presidential Candidate, John Dramani Mahama.
It was the verdict of the court that the petition was without merit.
Former President John Mahama had gone to court challenging the validity of results and the declaration of President Akufo-Addo as the winner.
It was his case that no candidate got the more than 50 percent threshold to be elected a president hence the court should order a rerun of the presidential polls.
But reading the ruling of the court last week Thursday, Chief Justice Anin Yeboah said the petitioner did not satisfy all the 5 issues outlined by the court to determine the case.
The Chief Justice said there was no doubt that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission made a mistake by announcing 13,434,74 instead of 13,121,111 to be total valid votes cast.
According to him, the threshold to declare a president should be based on the total valid votes cast and not the total vote cast, and since that was rectified by the Chairperson, it is wrong for the petitioner to hold the EC to the error made.
He said the apex court was of the opinion that the Chairperson had a right to correct the mistake when it was noticed.
In view of this, the 2nd Respondent had more than 50% of the valid votes cast.
In conclusion, the petitioner’s submission on that did not find favor before the court.
The Chief Justice said although the court finds the accusation of vote padding very serious it observed that this allegation was not proven by the petitioner.
“The Petitioner did not adduce cogent evidence to back this claim. The court expected the pink sheets to be exhibited to prove the claims. Allegations of wrong aggregations of votes were not proved. Even if the vote padding was accepted, it will not impact the validity of the votes of Nana Akufo-Addo,” Justice Anin Yeboah read.
Reacting, the President described the judgement as excellent and well reasoned and it validated him as the President unanimously.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
