Supreme Court grants Mahama’s request to have election petition telecast live on TV
- The Supreme Court has granted Mahama request to telecast the 2020 election petition
- Mahama filed a petition before the court to challenge the outcome of the 2020 polls
- He is asking for a rerun between him and Akufo-Addo
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The Supreme Court has granted John Dramani Mahama’s request to have the 2020 election petition telecast live on national television.
The former president’s request was granted on Thursday, January 14, 2021.
Source: Facebook
This is believed to be in the interest of fairness as was done during then-candidate Akufo-Addo’s 2012 election petition.
Akufo-Addo was sworn in as president on Thursday, January 7, 2021.
Heads of state from across Africa and dignitaries watch him took the oath of office at a ceremony in Accra.
He defeated former Mahama in the keenly contested polls garnering 51.302% of the ballots against the latter’s 47.359%.
Mahama rejected the outcome, arguing the verdict was “stolen”, filing a petition at the Supreme Court to challenge the results.
The NDC said it will not acknowledge Akufo-Addo as president.
Addressing a news conference in Accra on Friday, January 8, 2021, the general secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said the NDC shall not recognize Akufo-Addo as president until all issues surrounding "his flawed elections are satisfactorily resolved.”
According to Mahama, his petition is aimed at removing doubts in the minds of Ghanaians over the credibility of the electoral process.
Meanwhile, Akufo-Addo asked the apex court to throw out Mahama’s petition.
Responding to the petition through his lawyers, he dismissed it as “incompetent, devoid of substance and does not measure up to the legal criteria for an action invoking this Honourable Court’s jurisdiction under Article 64(1) of the Constitution.”
The president further argued that the petition failed to prove any attack on the credibility of the 2020 polls, which was held throughout the 38,622 polling stations and 311 special voting centres across the country.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
