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Npp Did Not Loss The SC Judgement, Says Sam Okudzeto

A former President of the Ghana Bar Association and renowned lawyer,

Samuel Okudzeto, has stated that his analysis of the 588 paged

judgment, handed down by the Supreme Court on the presidential

election petition, reveals that the judgment went 5-4 in favour of the

petitioners. At a symposium organized by the Danquah Institute to

review the Supreme Court's decision in the election petition filed by

Nana Akufo- Addo, Sam Okudzeto stated that the judgment handed down by

Justice Atuguba did not establish the fact that the petitioners lost

the case. He was therefore at a loss as to how the Atuguba Court came

about the decision that the petitioners lost the case. In explaining

his analysis, he stated that before the commencement of the

substantive case, the Supreme Court set out only two issues for

determination which were (1) Whether or not there are statutory

violations in the nature of omissions, irregularities and malpractices

in the conduct of the Presidential Elections held on the 7th and 8th

December 2012; and (2) Whether or not the said statutory violations,

if any, affected the results of the elections. According to Sam

Okudzeto, Justices Atuguba, Adinyirah, Gbadegbe and Akoto-Bamfo,

dismissed, unanimously, all the six grounds of infractions filed by

the petitioners in the court and as such decided to sustain President

Mahama as the duly elected President. He noted, however, that Justices

Ansah, Owusu and Anin-Yeboah were of the opinion that President Mahama

wasn't duly elected, as contained in their judgments. This, according

to him, meant that 4 judges had ruled for John Mahama, whilst 3 had

ruled that John Mahama wasn't duly elected. "What happened to the

other two? This is where the issue becomes dicey," he noted. Sam

Okudzeto stated that Justice Dotse, in page 405 of the judgment,

dismissed the claims of the petitioners with regards to the use

duplicate serial numbers, voting without biometric verification,

unknown polling stations and duplicate polling station results.

However, Justice Dotse, Sam Okudzeto noted, upheld the claims of the

petitioners in the categories of no signatures of presiding officers

as well as in over-voting and ordered a re- run of the elections in

the affected polling stations. Touching on Justice Baffoe- Bonnie's

judgment where he dismissed all the claims of the petitioners, Sam

Okudzeto stated that Justice Baffoe- Bonnie upheld the petitioners'

claims of voting without biometric verification, and ordered a re-run

of the election in the affected polling stations. Thus, as per the

issues set out by the court, Sam Okudzeto noted that it was clear from

the judgment that 5 of the Supreme Court judges determined that the

irregularities affected the elections whereas 4 of the judges noted

that the irregularities did not. This, in his opinion, established the

fact that the judgment handed down by the Supreme Court judges went

5-4 in favour of the petitioners.

HMMMM So this case is still alive….?

CULLED FROM JOYONLINE

Kofi Oppong Kyekyeku

I am a Ghanaian Broadcast Journalist/Writer who has an interest in General News, Sports, Entertainment, Health, Lifestyle and many more.

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