Ghana Supreme Court Upholds Nana Akufo-Addo’s Election Win

(Bloomberg) -- Ghana’s Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the outcome of December’s presidential vote, confirming that Nana Akufo-Addo was re-elected for another four-year term.

All seven judges agreed on the ruling, Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah said Thursday in the capital, Accra.

The opposition “has not produced any evidence” that alleged errors and corrections made by the Electoral Commission of Ghana affected the election outcome, he said. “We accordingly dismiss the petition as having no merit.”

Opposition leader John Mahama, of the National Democratic Congress, appealed the election outcome after the country’s electoral commission declared on Dec. 9 that he had received 47.4% of the ballots compared with Akufo-Addo’s 51.6%. Mahama, who was president from 2012 to 2017, described the results as illegal, saying the proper voter verification process wasn’t followed. He sought a Supreme Court decision that would declare them unconstitutional, null and void.

“The sun may have set on our hopes for the just-ended elections today but it will rise again tomorrow and will illuminate our path to a better outcome the next time round,” Mahama told party members in Accra later Thursday.

Akufo-Addo still faces a hung parliament after the ruling New Patriotic Party and the NDC got 137 seats each in the Dec. 7 vote when lawmakers were also elected. An independent candidate who leans toward the NPP gives the party a one-seat majority.

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