REASONS FOR PETITION

THE ELECTION PETTITION IN GHANA: REASONS FOR THE PETITION

 

This study discusses Ghana’s presidential election petition in Africa especially Ghana. Ghana attained its political independence in 6^th march 1957 with a resolution to develop in all sphere of its economy. Most especially, it resolved to assist and be a shining example for other African countries who were struggling to attain independence from colonial rule. As a country, Ghana has experienced five successful military takeovers. The first being the 24^th February 1966 coup to oust the first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The second and third ones were the 13^th January 1972 coup and the palace coup of July 1978. The country has experience 22years of military rule after its independence, where constitutions were not in existence and the instructions for governance were by military have been a major contributor to Ghana’s developmental challenges.

 

The country therefore adopted the Fourth Republic Constitution through a referendum on 28^th April 1992 to depart from the trend. This saw the Constitution as the only way of governance and change of political power from one leader to another.  They feather by established the Electoral Commission (EC) as the sole body to take charge of organizing public election in the country.

Ghana has experience election petition in past years after conducting elections. One petition happened in a year 2012 where the New Patriotic Part(NPP) rejected the result which declared H.E John Dramani Mahama as the winner and petitioned the court. And the one which happened on the 9^th December 2020 where the National Democratic Congress also rejected the New Patriotic Party as the winner.

REASONS

There has been evidence of increasing cases of election petition and substantial court determination of election outcomes in the Republic of Ghana. In a true fact, no serious political party will sit unresponsive and allow its opponent to rig elections. It can be recalled that 2012 there was an election and its outcome despite the position of most Observer Groups as being free and fair had to be contested in court by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) since according to them many alleged anomalies were evident. After the declaration of the 2012 election by the Electoral Commission as John Mahama being the chosen president of the Republic of Ghana, the entire country was not convinced that John Mahama was actually the winner of the 2012 election. The entire country was in an expectant mood waiting for the court to either confirm or reject the declaration made by the EC.

 

The NPP said it had waited to file its challenge in court until it had analyzed the data from 26,000 polling stations. It is said it had now found irregularities such as cases of over voting and instances when people not registered by the new biometric finger-printing system were able to vote. The BBC Sammy Darko in the capital, Accra says the party has calculated that there were 1.34 million extra votes cast, which if withdraw from the final tally would make Mr. Akufo-Addo the winner. ′′we are ready to concede that in an election that involves more than 11 million voters there might be mistakes,′′ said Mr. Akufo-Addo after petition was filed at Supreme Court in Accra.

The opposition party (NPP) said they filed the case to ensure that:

1.     The electoral commission is accountable to the people of Ghana

2.     And that the Supreme Court is seen by all as the ultimate arbiter of electoral grievance and disputes.

In the same vein, the Electoral Commission on the 9^th December 2020 declared H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo as the winner of the 2020 general election. In reaction, the main opposition party: National Democratic Congress(NDC) in a press conference rejected the outcome, alleged series of irregularities and levelled various allegations of electoral malfeasance against the EC the ruling party.

Their reasons for the petition are as follows;

That the purported declaration made on 9^th December 2020 by Mrs. Jean Adukweu Mensa, Chairperson of 1^st Respondent and the Returning Officer for the Presidential Election held on 7^th December 2020 violated Article 63(3) of the 1992 constitution, and is therefore unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.

b. that in making the said declaration, Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa, Chairperson of 1^st Respondent and the Returning Officer for the Presidential Election, violated the Constitutional duty imposed on her by Article 23 and 1992 Constitution to be fair, candid and reasonable.

c. that the said declaration was made arbitrarily, capriciously, and with bias in favor of 2^nd Respondent, contrary to Article 296(b) of the 1992 Constitution.

d. that the said declaration was made without regard to due process of law as required under Articles 23(b) of the 1992 Constitution.

Even though the opposition party NDC filed for these case , they also failed to file Dema witness statement and could not provide enough evidence too. they even went to extent of blaming the media houses for showing fake and bias results which later on proved to be wrong.

SOLUTION

Its as though every opposition party has an issue of mistrust in the conduct of elections and even on the build up to elections. Though there’s absolutely no election without challenges but It is therefore the need for the country to have a free and fair election. There should be a careful selection of polling agents to observe the vote-counting process at each polling station and ensure that correct vote figures are recorded on official results.

Finally, there should be transparent collation of election results. Even with increased vigilance at polling stations, officially recorded electoral results may be altered at the next level of vote tallying-constituency collation centers to prevent illegal amendments of vote totals. The media should serve as a watch dog in reporting result to avoid fake news.